Percy Jackson and the Wrath of the Mortals
by Project Phoenix Agent 003
Summary: Tensions between Olympus and the mortals have never been higher. Now something has pushed the mortals over the edge and they are invading Olympus. If the Seven Half-Bloods cannot stop them in thirty days, the gods will eradicate humanity itself.
1. News

_**After twenty-six chapters, an epilogue, and an AN award ceremony, you thought I was all worn out. Well think again. Project Phoenix Agent 003 is back with **__**Percy Jackson and the Wrath of the Mortals! **__**I admit I'm a little nervous about how this one will turn out. Regardless of my paranoia, here it is.**_ _**If you haven't read the one before this it's called Percy Jackson and the Prison of the Gods. **__**This takes place three years after Prison of the Gods. Percy and Annabeth are married. No children.**_

_**Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson and the Olympians. And I probably never will.**_

I rolled aside as the Minotaur charged. Where I was standing there was now an impressive hole in the side of a building. People stood back, watching the fight. Some were shouting for me to take this somewhere else. I really miss the Mist.

I jumped over the Minotaur's next charge, but had to grab the beast when I realized his momentum was carrying him toward the crowd of onlookers. I drew Riptide and tried to stab, but the Minotaur spun around and dueled me horns against sword. I jumped back, but the beast rammed me while I was in mid-air. I raised my sword and sliced at his neck.

The monster dissolved and I rolled across the pavement. I surveyed the area around me. Aside from the hole in the side of one building and two crushed cars, my fight didn't cause much damage. But that was by my standards.

Because by the mortals' standards, I'd just caused serious collateral damage to their fair city. The day they lighten up is the day Smelly Gabe makes it to Elysium. A few little kids ran up to me and told me that I was awesome.

"DUDE!" one boy shouted. "That was _sweet _when you were all like 'Take that!' and the bull dude was all like 'RAWR! RAWR!' and–"

After a few more seconds of that, all I heard coming from his mouth was blah, blah, blah. A little girl, maybe two or three ran up and hugged my leg, refusing to let go. She looked up with a sad little puppy dog face.

"Will you be my daddy?" she asked in a sweet little voice.

"Whose kid is this?" I asked, pointing at the little girl on my leg.

I knew that if I didn't get out of here soon, things were going to get ugly. But, by the time the mom showed up to get her little girl off of me, the reporters had shown up. Aw sh**.

"Mr. Jackson!" one called out. "Mr. Jackson! Burt Williams from the Burt Williams show. Was this attack in anyway related to last week's Chimera incident?"

"What?" I asked. "No I just–"

"Mr. Jackson!" another shouted. "People are claiming that local half-bloods are deliberately looking for fights with monsters. Is this true?"

"Well, that's a little complicated," I tried to explain. "You see the thing with monsters is–"

"Mr. Jackson! Care to comment on the latest Oracle scandal?" some person shouted.

"What are you talking abou–"

"Mr. Jackson! Is it true demigods are a menace to society?" some grump shouted.

"What? That's ridiculous!" I shouted. Some other reported wrote down what I'd said, thinking I'd answered their question. Oh crap.

"So you're not not denying that demigods aren't putting us all in danger by existing?" a reporter asked me.

"What?" I cried.

I was getting tired of this. I jumped into the air, clearing the mass of reporters that had surrounded me. Someone snapped a picture. I could see the headlines now: **Local Demigod Menace Attacks Reporters. **Just great.

I hit the pavement running, and the reporters couldn't catch my dust. I weaved through the streets of New York until I finally made my way back to my apartment. I locked the door behind me, and tossed my jacket onto the nearest couch.

"Honey, I'm home!" I called out.

"In the kitchen!" Annabeth shouted.

I walked over to see her already cooking dinner. Strangely, she'd made a lot more food than the two of us ate, and the table was set for four.

"Someone coming over?" I asked.

"As a matter of fact, our parents are stopping by. The negotiations aren't going well and they need some time off," Annabeth told me.

I smiled, but groaned inside my head. Poseidon and Athena in the same room went well for about five minutes, and then they were trying to kill each other.

But I sucked it up, because if I had been stuck at the UN/Olympus negotiations all day, I'd feel pretty drained too. Three years "co-existing" with mortals and tensions hadn't eased up much. Oh sure it was a lot better than before. Grief-stricken rioters had stopped trying to get into the Underworld to demand the resurrection of their lost loved ones. Camp strawberry sales were back up, once people realized that food grown by satyrs and demigods wasn't poisonous. And "secret" military operations only tried to get into the "demigod training facility" (Camp Half-Blood) twice this month.

Yeah, life was better than it had been in the beginning, but it still wasn't as good as before the mortals knew Olympus was real. And it never would be.

"I'm gonna go take a shower," I told her.

She sniffed the air and pretended to gag. "I won't stop you."

After the shower I sat down to watch tv. The first channel the tv turned to was some story backed up by footage of me fighting the Minotaur. I changed the channel.

"In other news, in response to the question if he was married, local demigod Percy Jackson responded quote, 'That's ridiculous'"

"What was that?" I heard Annabeth call from the kitchen.

"Nothing!" I shouted and quickly flipped to a different station.

"The fourth incident this month, he's clearly a menace to society, and easily the most dangerous man alive," a reporter sated. I though they were talking about me until they showed a picture of Nico fighting a runaway hellhound.

"Annabeth," I called, "is Nico more dangerous than me?"

"No," she answered.

"I thought so," I muttered.

"Percy, unless you have something important to do, get in here and help me with the pasta," Annabeth ordered.

"Coming," I called out.

Ten minutes later everything was ready for Poseidon and Athena. But they were running late. I was about to Iris message them when Athena burst in.

"Mother," Annabeth said, worried, "what's wrong?"

"It's Poseidon!" she cried. "We were on our way here when he got the call. The United States navy sent a submarine headed for Poseidon's palace."

"What?" Annabeth and I cried.

"He just got the game room up again," I groaned.

"That's not it. This morning Zeus shot down a UAV that got too close to Olympus. We think the mortals are planning an invasion of Olympus," Athena told us.

"What?" Annabeth shouted. "Why would they do that? Don't they know they wouldn't stand a chance?"

Athena shook her head. "Apparently not. Whatever they're up to, it's going to get ugly. I tried to warn them of the consequences, but the arrogant mortals wouldn't listen."

"Well so long as I don't get caught in the crossfire I'm good," I said.

"Percy!" Annabeth scolded.

"Hey if the mortals want to go on a suicide run I say let them," I said. I was really tired if mortals. With their reporters, low tolerance of collateral damage, and what not.

"Percy, the mortals have deeply angered the gods. Zeus has proposed we annihilate all of man kind to deal with the problem," Athena told me.

"All of mankind? Like, as in everyone?" I asked, shocked.

"Yes," she told me.

"Oh." I said. "Yeah that would be bad."

_**Granted not nearly as epic as the first chapter of Prison of the Gods, but this story will still be good. Trust me on this one. If you're lucky chapter two will be up tomorrow. I'm just warning you many of you will want me dead by the end of the story due to the characters I'm going to kill off. Thankfully I have my army of clones to take the various falls for me, so HA! Review if you read this.**_


	2. Hostage Situation

_**Chapter two up and running! If anyone asks, I died in a horrible whisker box incident (don't ask). Oh and yes I did alter the prophecy at the end of TLO, because I realized that prophecy guarantees the fall of the world (or at least that's how I see it). Here we go. Read, review, and don't kill me!**_

"So what's the problem with my dad? A little sub is nothing he can't handle," I said.

"Well Poseidon's idea of 'handling' it is blasting the submarine to Tartarus," Athena informed me.

Are all gods so temperamental? I mean you piss them off in the littlest of ways and next thing you know they want to blast you. Those poor mortals would be killed.

"Don't worry," Athena told me. "I convinced him to take a more diplomatic approach."

"What's he going to do then?" Annabeth asked.

"Oh, something about holding the sub and crew hostage until the UN agree to cease all trips to Poseidon's palace and surrounding waters," Athena said nonchalantly.

"Right," I gulped. "Diplomatic."

I walked away, headed for the door. I grabbed my jacket and opened the door, but Annabeth grabbed my arm before I could leave.

"Where do you think you're going?" she asked.

"To convince my dad to not take a naval submarine hostage…again," I told her.

The last thing I need is more reporters hating me for being related to public enemy number one. _Please let him listen to reason._

I commute from New York harbor to Poseidon's palace was a long one, and by the time I got there the ship was already stowed away. So much for preventing a hostage situation. I made my way to Poseidon's court, where my dad, stepmom, and my immortal half-brother were, among others.

"Percy," my dad greeted happily. "What brings you here?"

"Well, you missed the dinner thing over at my place," I said, keeping things casual at first.

"Is that all?" Poseidon questioned.

"No," I admitted. "I also came because you abducted another submarine. So I'm asking you to kindly let it go."

My father frowned. We'd had this conversation before. I was just as pissed with the mortals as the next half-blood, but gods took that anger to a whole new level. I knew my dad was very_ very _mad about the mortals snooping around his palace. Last time, he almost sunk the world's navy until I convinced him that was a bad idea. The time before that, I had to stop him from drowning Russia's Prime Minister (that was a close one too). The time before that…well you get the point.

"Percy, I can't keep being so lenient with these intruders. To sail in the ocean is one thing. To try to enter my palace is another thing entirely. And did you know that sub was carrying weapons?"

"Because they're afraid of you!" I blurted out. "You take hostages and threaten entire countries, and you wonder why they're a little cautious? Do you think _anything _through?"

I hate ADHD. That rant was out of my mouth before I could even process the fact that I'd started talking. My dad looked mad at best. Very slowly, he let out a sigh, getting a grip on his anger. I was sooo dead.

"I'm sorry Percy," he said carefully. "We've tried it your way, now we're trying it mine."

I knew now what I had to do. I wasn't going to let the crew of that sub be held hostage. Poseidon wasn't going to let them go. Guess what happens next.

"I'm sorry too," I apologized in advance.

And then I left, my dad watching me leave. I swam back out, and circled back, headed for where I saw the sub chained into place. I summoned a dolphin to distract the two Cyclopes guards by the main hatch, and slipped inside. I carefully crawled throught he sub, looking for the crew. Because I'd opened the hatch while we were underwater, I was now wading ankle deep. There was no sign of the crew anywhere. I was about to give up when things took a turn for the worst.

"Who are you?" I heard a voice ask.

I turned to face a Cyclopes guard, wielding a sword and looking pretty mad.

"Easy big fella," I said. "I'm just here to let the nice people go. You just…get back to whatever you were doing."

"I am guarding sub," he told me. "This ship no leave unless Poseidon say so."

_Oh typical._

"I'm sorry you feel that way," I told him.

Before I could react, I was grabbed by the neck and slammed into a hard metal wall. I kicked out, and the Cyclopes released his grip. He swung his sword, but the way he used it you could tell he would prefer a large axe. I blocked the strike with Riptide and backed up, trying to get some breathing room in the cramped sub. I stayed on defense, not wanting to hurt the guard.

Using a move Luke had taught me a long time ago, I disarmed the Cyclopes and held the blade up to his throat.

"Like I said," I panted. "I'm just here to free the nice people."

"Percy?" a familiar voice asked.

I slowly turned to face my half-brother Tyson. He was staring at me in shock. The look on his face alone was heart-breaking. It made me want to forget the whole thing and let the mortals be hostages. But something about leaving this sub and its crew didn't sit right with my conscience. And I didn't need the media blaming my dad–and by extent me–for the disappearance of a navy submarine.

"Tyson, I'm just getting this ship back where it belongs," I explained, careful on y word choice.

"But," Tyson said, starting to cry. "Daddy Poseidon says these are bad men. And you…free them?"

"It's not that simple," I tried to explain. "They're just following their orders, like you buddy."

"I is helping Poseidon," he stated firmly. "And if you helping bad men…then you is bad man!"

With that I began a duel against my own brother. A duel I couldn't afford to lose, but didn't want to win. Tyson kept swinging with his club, and I kept dodging. I made no move to attack, too afraid to hurt Tyson. The walls and floor were getting pretty dented from all of Tyson's missed swings.

But then, Tyson got in a lucky shot, and I fell to the floor, my ribs feeling on fire. The water I was laying in already started to heal my broken ribs, but Tyson was on top of me, sadly raising his club. I looked up at my brother.

"Tyson, I'm not asking you to take sides. I'm asking you to stay out of my way," I told him.

The club didn't falter. Neither did Tyson. He raised the club a little higher. I rolled to the side as he brought it down hard. Before Tyson could react, I'd sliced the tip off his club. He batted me into the wall, again breaking a few bones in my body. I dodged as Tyson swung again. Ankle deep in water, I was still healing. But Tyson could finish me off with one lucky shot. I had to fight back, but at the same time I couldn't.

I slid between Tyson's legs and grabbed his ankle. Tyson fell to the floor face first, and I grabbed and threw him into a wall. He'd recover soon enough.

I turned around to find myself staring down the barrel of a shotgun. The scared out of his wits soldier holding it was shaking like crazy.

"Oh come on!" I shouted at my own bad luck. I was being attacked by the people I was trying to save. Is there anyone still on my side?

I sliced the barrel off the shotgun with one swipe from Riptide and kicked the shaking soldier into a wall. He collapsed, hopefully unconscious. Tyson was p and swinging again. I kicked him In the stomach followed by a punch to the face.

"OW!" I screamed, shaking my hand in pain. Tyson has a strong jaw.

"Stop!" a commanding voice shouted. Tyson and I froze and turned to face Poseidon.

My dad looked like he'd just been to a funeral he was so sad. He looked first at Tyson, then at me.

"Why would you do this Percy?" my father asked.

"Why?" I began. "Because what you're doing, what you're having Tyson do, is wrong! You can't just take hostages and blow stuff up whenever you get mad! And in case you haven't noticed, thanks to your little tantrum, I had to fight my own brother! What the hell has gotten into you?"

I was angry. Angry at Poseidon for putting me in this position. Angry at the mortals for not knowing to stay out of immortal business. Angry with the gods for being so temperamental. I was just angry. But when I saw Tyson's sad face, the anger melted away and I was suddenly on the verge of tears.

Poseidon looked like I'd punched him in the gut. He looked at Tyson, then at me.

"Percy, this is how Olympians do things. The mortals hit, we hit harder. You have to understand. Fighting fire with fire–"

"Is a sure way to create hell!" I shouted. And with that I left, my mission a failure.

As I swam for the surface, the sub roared to life and began its ascent to the surface.

"It's a little late for I'm sorry," I told my dad. A cold current swept by, chilling me to the bone.

When I got home, Annabeth was waiting. Instead of saying hi however, I just plopped down on the couch and buried my face in my hands. No tears ever came, but I still stayed like that.

Annabeth sat down next to me and slowly slid her arm around my shoulder. She put her other hand on my leg, trying to calm me down. I admit it worked. I looked up at her, feeling sadder than ever before.

"What happened to them?" I asked her.

She rested her head on my shoulder, and I wrapped my arm around her waist, pulling her closer. We stayed that way until we both fell asleep. My own sleep was of course, not dreamless.

_***Sniff* This chapter was so sad in my opinion. At first glance Percy may seem emotional, but if you had watched as your father became a ruthless tyrant and then had to fight you only brother, wouldn't you bee a little misty eyed? Read, review, and don't kill me!**_


	3. Spies

_**Chapter three! Don't worry this chapter is a lot happier than the one before it. In this chapter we get a sneak peek at Nico's perverted premonition. This story is going okay considering I'm making it up as I go along. Read, review, and don't kill me! XD Well with that spirit in mind, we set forth…**_

Nico's POV

I was alone in the Hades cabin, staring at the ceiling at wondering when my life had drifted into eternal boredom. Three years ago, the gods had promised me a life of adventure and glory. Since then I'd gone on one quest to help some Hunters out of a tight spot. It was good to see Thalia again, but with twenty-four seven glaring form the other Hunters, it was pretty uncomfortable.

I sighed. I guess that was why I went to the Underworld a lot. At least there I had something to do. Up here, I was bored out of my mind. My ears picked up a muffled sound and the feeling hit me that something had temporarily died. I sat up in bed, straining my ears to hear anything else. There was the sound of a body hitting the floor. I climbed out of bed and threw on a fresh shirt and some pants.

Outside I saw two figures dragging the dead body of a harpy. I shadow traveled behind them to try and hear what they were saying.

"Damn, why's this thing so heavy?" one asked.

"Forget it," the other said. "Just set it down."

They dropped the harpy corpse and drew their weapons. Silenced M4A1's. How do I know? I play a lot of first person shooters, I know things. They turned on flashlights attached to their head gear.

"See anything?" one asked.

"Nah man, this place is dead," the other responded.

"I wish," I scoffed.

They both spun around and aimed their weapons at me. _Pft. _I'm a son of Hades. I don't fear death. And I certainly don't fear mortal soldiers that break into camp.

"But sadly, most people here are one-hundred percent living," I said. "Except for my buddies of course."

On command, several undead warriors rose out of the ground and advanced on the two intruders. One of them fired a perfectly aimed headshot. The head of the skeletal warrior thrashed backward, then straightened out again.

"Yeah see the thing about skeleton soldiers…they're already dead," I told them, stating the obvious.

I drew my sword. Celestial bronze may go straight through mortals, but Stygian iron works just fine. Two slashes later, I was dragging the bleeding forms of the two soldiers.

"I don't know how you got in here," I told them. "But I know how you're getting out!"

I tossed them back across the property line, and they tumbled down the hill. I laughed a dark, cold laugh and walked back to my cabin. I didn't even bother to change my clothes again, I just slept dressed. As I stared at the ceiling, I wondered if my life would ever get some half-decent excitement in it again.

My dreams scared me into next year.

_I looked away as the shrouded bodies were lowered into the grave. Rain poured down, hiding everybody's tears. Percy was on his knees, crying like there was no tomorrow. It probably felt that way to him. Thalia held me tight in a hug as she cried into my shoulder. I hugged her back, trying to comfort her. I was a son of Hades, death was my thing. That didn't mean I wasn't as sad as everyone else._

_"They're gone," Thalia sobbed._

_"We'll see them again one day," I reminded her._

_She looked up at me, her hair soaked and her eyes bleary from crying. "You think so?" she asked._

_I nodded. "I know so."_

_She looked at me, then at my lips, and then back at me. And then…she kissed me. I wrapped my arms around her and the kiss deepened. Slowly, one of her hands drifted from my neck and down to my belt. I probably should have stopped her there, but the kiss took the pain of loss away. I didn't want to stop. _

_My belt fell to the ground. _

I woke up breathing heavily and sweating. I went to the sink and splashed water in my face. That always works better for Percy. I checked the clock. It was three in morning, and I was wide awake. I could only wonder who was in that coffin, what would break everybody so severely.

I took a walk, trying to clear my head. The harpies were too busy keeping an eye out for more mortal spies to notice me. I found myself in the woods, where the trees blocked out all light, and everything was pitch black. I just sat in the darkness, feeling at peace and letting my thoughts disappear.

When the sun came up and light filled the woods, I was forced to return to my cabin. Finally feeling tired again, I plopped back into bed and stayed there for about two seconds until Grover burst in.

"Nico man, you're gonna miss breakfast!" he shouted.

I only groaned and muttered some threat. Grover's eyes went wide and after a while he finally stuttered.

"Uh, ok-kay. I'll I'll just be g-going then," he stammered, and ran away as fast as satyrly possible. I wonder what I said.

I groggily lugged myself out of bed and walked toward the dining pavilion. But by the time I got there, all the food was gone. Mr. D saw me and smiled evily.

"Ah, Nacho. Could you do something useful with your life and feed the dragon? He's less likely to kill any annoying mortals that way."

"My name's not Nacho," I grumbled.

I was tossing slabs of meat when a car pulled up into the camp garage (we'd gotten one built after a bunch of the campers got their own cars). I recognized it instantly. But I couldn't believe it. The owners of that car had left camp last year to live life in the world. And yet, here they were standing in front of me.

"Percy!" I greeted.

Percy and Annabeth Jackson climbed out of the car. I hadn't seen either of them since the wedding. Annabeth gave me a quick hug and Percy shook my hand.

"So, what are you guys doing here?" I asked.

"Vacation," Percy said. "Been out in the world lately Nico?"

I grimaced, remembering my bad experience with the reporters and the pack of hellhounds.

"Once or twice," I admitted.

"Bad place to be right now," Percy informed me. "At least for half-bloods anyway."

"Oh well that's just great," I scoffed. "Hey did you hear the news about The Pit?"

The Pit was a group of evil half-bloods about ten strong who were bent on killing the rest of us good half-bloods. They were all survivors from Kronos's army who didn't come back to the light after the war. And they were lead by Ethan Nakurma.

Percy let out a groan. "What are they trying now?"

"Not sure, but Nakurma stole Nemesis's shield," I told them.

"Son of b****," Percy said. "He betrayed his own mother."

"Who you just called a b****," Annabeth pointed out.

"Oh I'm trouble," Percy sighed.

"Why would he steal Nemesis's shield?" Annabeth asked me.

"Well it can make anyone hunger for revenge, so I'm guessing he's going to use it to piss someone off," I guessed.

Chiron came trotting over.

"Ah, I'm glad I found you three," he told us.

"What is it?" Percy asked.

Percy's POV

"Percy," Chiron told me gravely, "it would seem there is trouble on Olympus."

_And I just got here too. _Oh well, time for another quest.

_**Did you guys catch that line from the preview? Of course you didn't! Anyway, it's time for my constant and annoying questions! What's happening on Olympus? Is Nico going to get the adventure he craves? What's Nakurma up to? Did I even spell his name right? Tune in next time to find out!**_


	4. Meeting

_**It's like my old friend Owch always says: I really need to buy that back scratcher. What does that have to do with this chapter? Nothing, my back just itches. A lot…So anyway here's the chapter. I really think this chapters pretty boring until the end. It's a filler chapter with one of my signature cliff-hangers. Read, review, and don't kill me!**_

"What is it now?" I asked.

"The Olympian Council is having a heated argument about Zeus's suggestion to eradicate humanity," Chiron said.

"Well maybe because it's a little drastic and some of the gods have enough common sense to see that," I said.

A net of lightning flashed in the sky followed by the horrible crackling thunder. I just looked at the sky angrily.

"Oh shut up!" I shouted. More lightning.

"Percy, many of the gods are backing Zeus. We need you and a few others to travel to Olympus and convince them this is a rather rash idea," Chiron told us.

"Alright, I'll talk some sense into them," I grumbled.

"I'll come," Annabeth stated.

"I haven't got anything better to do," Nico shrugged.

"Chance to yell at the gods?" Luke asked. "I'm in."

Luke still wasn't the gods' biggest fan, but he preferred them over the Titans, and he decided the West was worth his efforts, so he was a good guy again. As long as he was on our side, I really didn't mind if he still got mad at the gods when they acted stupid.

"I'll come," someone called.

We turned to see Chris walking up to us, with Clarisse following him.

"Oh no you don't," Clarisse warned. "Remember last time you dragged us to Olympus?"

Chris shivered, and I busted up laughing. That was the funniest day ever, well except for Clarisse, Chris, Artemis, and that huntress who looked a lot like Clarisse. I will never forget the look on Artemis's face. Anyway, I'm getting off track.

"Hey whoever said _us_? You don't have to come," Chris said.

Clarisse smacked Chris upside the head.

"Well of course I'm coming. You think I'm gonna stay at camp while you go make out with some naiad?" Clarisse joked/growled.

"Okay!" I shouted, interrupting the love fest. "You're both coming."

"That makes six," Nico said. "That's twice the normal number of people on a quest. Let's go."

Together, we all headed for Olympus. Two of the vans were out delivering strawberries, and the third was out of order. So we were _walking_ to Olympus. And of course, we were spotted by the reporters.

"Mr. Jackson!" one shouted. "Who are these people with you?"

"Why do people always assume he's in charge?" Nico shouted. "Ever thought maybe they're with me?"

"Nico!" a young female reporter shouted. "Nico your last rampage tore apart six city blocks!"

"You're point?" Nico growled.

The reporter ran up to him until they were nose to nose, and she spoke in her best seductive voice.

"I love dangerous men," she whispered in his ear.

"Uh, okay well I…gotta…you know, save the world and…stuff," Nico stammered.

The reporter pulled out a pen and scrawled something on Nico's hand. She walked away with flirty wave to Chris.

"Mrs. Jackson!" a different reporter shouted. Annabeth turned to look in their direction before I could stop her.

"Your husband is rumored to be involved in a side relationship with the Oracle," the reporter informed. "Care to shed light on the situation?"

Annabeth linked her arm through mine. "If my husband was having any form of a relationship with the Oracle, they'd both be dead. End of story."

Annabeth gave the reporters her very scary I'm-going-to-kill-you-slowly-and-painfully look, and they all backed off.

"Mortals," I groaned. "The gods may have short fuses, but the mortals _are _pretty irritating."

Nico nodded. "I know. Had to toss a few back over the border just yesterday."

"How'd they get into camp in the first place?" Chris asked.

"My guess?" Nico asked. "Alien teleportation device."

Annabeth groaned. "Really Nico? Grow up. I'm guessing they flew, most likely HALO jump. From an elevation of about…ninety-thousand feet."

"That's high," Nico stated.

"Duh," I scoffed.

We made it to the Empire State building without any further hitches, and we all rode the elevator to the six-hundredth floor. As we walked through the city, a girl about sixteen years old walked up to us. She had dark hair, electric blue eyes, and a quiver of arrows strapped to her back.

"Thalia?" Annabeth asked in surprise.

The two girls hugged and told each other how cool it was to see each other again. Nico went rigid the second Thalia showed up. I knew it was awkward for them. They'd had a thing going on when the Titans took over, but once the West was restored things went back to the way they'd been before. Thalia was a huntress who couldn't date and Nico was the dark and lonely son of Hades. Poor guy.

"What are you doing here?" Annabeth asked.

"Well I'm Artemis's lieutenant, so I go where she goes," she explained.

A thought came into my mind. Thalia was the immortal lieutenant of Artemis. Her supporting us would probably give our say more weight when we talked to the gods.

"Hey Thalia," I said, "we're going to go talk some sense in the gods. Wanna come?"

"Define 'talk some sense into'," Thalia asked.

"We're going to convince them not to destroy humanity, and there will most likely be no hitting involved," I explained.

She thought about it, then nodded. "Yeah, I'm in."

We entered the throne room where the gods were having a heated debate.

"I'm telling you there has got to be another way!" Hephaestus shouted.

"I gave them a chance!" Zeus roared. "From the moment Prometheus gave them fire, I knew there would come a time when this would happen! The only logical way to fix this is to destroy them and start over!"

"Like you know the first thing about logic!" Athena shouted.

"Hey the mortals wanted a fight, I say we give 'em one!" Ares suggested. "Put them back in their place."

"Have you ever considered thinking with your head instead of your fists?" Athena asked.

"My fists do all the thinking I need," Ares insisted. "Watch!"

And he hit Athena in the face. Athena started pummeling Ares, and Poseidon tried to calm her down. He ended up getting hit in the face, so he hit Athena. Then Zeus got mad at Poseidon for hitting Athena and threw a lightning bolt at my dad. Hades defended Poseidon (Surprising, I know.) and suddenly he and Zeus were fighting. Before I knew it the twelve most powerful beings in existence were having an all out brawl and energy blasts and punches were shaking Olympus itself.

"Hey!" I shouted. No one heard me. Hades, I barely heard me.

"Hey!" I shouted, louder. Still no response.

"THAT"S ENOUGH!" Annabeth shouted.

All twelve gods froze mid-fight. Apollo had his fist pulled back, about to hit Dionysus in the face. Artemis had an arrow notched and aimed at Aphrodite. Hera had a death grip on Hades' hair. They were acting like kids. And we were supposed to trust the universe to these guys?

"Annabeth?" Athena asked, trying to stay calm. "What exactly are you and your friends doing here?"

"Coming to talk some sense into you dolts," Luke blurted out. We all grimaced. "Looks like we showed up just in time."

We all shushed Luke. He was going to get us killed. And he probably knew it too.

I cleared my throat. All eyes, immortal or otherwise, turned towards me.

"Look, obviously you guys are torn about this. That's because this is a bad idea," I told them. "It's time to stop all this. Just put it to a vote."

The gods sat back in their thrones, straightening out their appearances as best as they could.

"The boy is right," Athena said.

"I am?" I asked.

"The time for arguing is over. We'll put this to a vote, and stick with the decision. Agreed?"

The other gods nodded, and the vote started.

"All against?" Zeus asked.

Athena, Aphrodite, Hermes, Apollo, Hephaestus, and Demeter all raised their hands.

"All in favor?"

Zeus, Hades, Hera, Dionysus, Artemis, and Ares raised their hands. All eyes fell to my father.

"Brother Poseidon, you choose to remain neutral?" Zeus asked.

There was an edge to Zeus's voice, and I knew he would _not _stand for a tie. Poseidon must've known too, because he spoke.

"No brother. I will choose," he said.

"Well?" Zeus asked impatiently.

_**And just like that our fate is in the hands of the god of the sea. Will Poseidon decide in favor or against Zeus's plan? What has Ethan got to do with this? And with seven half-bloods gathered and the world possibly going to be destroyed, has the new Great Prophecy come true? Is this story finally getting good? Tune in next time to find out!**_


	5. The Plan

_**So yes things pick up from here. I believe my English teacher would call it "rising action". And if this story doesn't turn out perfect, you know what they say:**_

_**"I'll see you in the sequel, which always does better than the original in the opening weekend but is never as good as the original!"**_

"I…" Poseidon began.

_Don't do it. _I pleaded. _Please don't do it. _He looked at Zeus, then his eyes darted to me for a second. In that brief second where our eyes locked, I had my dad's full attention. _Please dad. Think about all the _good _mortals in the world. You can't kill them too. Please. What would mom think?_

The look on my dad's face made it seem like he was trying to stab himself. He looked back at Zeus, and I knew what he would say.

"I vote in favor of Zeus's plan," he said.

"NO!" I shouted.

"The vote has been cast," Zeus announced. "We destroy man first thing tomorrow."

"Wait!" I said. "You can't–"

Zeus glared at me. "We will as we please Perseus. And as for your precious mortals, do you think they're so innocent?"

"Sure they go over the top some times but that's no reason to–" I started but Zeus waved his hand and an Iris message appeared, showing the United States military making their way through New York. The scene spun around so I could see where they were headed. They were marching straight for the Empire state building. They were going to storm Olympus.

"You see?" Zeus asked.

"The mortals are planning an invasion," he continued. "Therefore, we shall destroy humanity to prevent this and any future strikes against Olympus."

"What if _we _could stop this and any future invasions?" I blurted.

Zeus raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"

"Give us some time," I pleaded. "If we stop the invasion, you don't destroy humanity. If we can't, then go ahead and carry through with your plan."

Zeus thought about it.

If this…mortal problem is not resolved in thirty days," Zeus warned us, "then we shall unleash our full fury on all of mankind."

"We understand," I gulped.

All the others looked at me like I was crazy. I felt that way, because when I thought about it, it made no sense. To stop the invasion, we'd have to hold off or destroy the invasion force. Considering we were saving the mortals, that didn't make much sense. Oh well. My _life _doesn't make sense.

"Very well,"" Zeus grumbled. "Be gone!"

The next thing I knew we were all back at camp, including Thalia. As soon as we materialized, they started shouting at me.

"Are you crazy?"

"What the Hades were you thinking?"

"How are the seven of us supposed to stop the US military?" Nico asked.

Something in his question got to me. Not the way he made our situation hopeless…it was something else. Then it hit me.

"Seven of us," I mumbled.

"Yeah that's what I said," Nico reminded me.

I did a head count. "Seven."

"You're creeping me out man," Nico said.

"Nico…seven of us. _Seven._"

Annabeth got it first. "Oh gods, why now?"

One by one, the others got what I was saying. Except Nico.

"Will someone please tell me what's going on?" Nico shouted.

I cleared my throat. "_Seven half-bloods shall answer the call'. _That ring any bells Nico?"

Nico's eyes widened. "Oh no."

A different line of the prophecy suddenly had more importance to it than I realized.

"'_An oath to keep with a final breath'," _I remembered.

We all looked at Thalia. She'd taken the oath of a huntress. And if she was going to keep it with her final breath, did that mean–?

"Um, please tell me one of you guys have an oath to keep," Thalia begged. No one responded to that. "I was afraid of that."

Annabeth cleared her throat. "Come on guys. Were wasting time."

"The invasion doesn't start to tomorrow. What do you suggest we do?" I asked.

"Make a plan," She answered.

And that's how we found ourselves in the Athena cabin staring at Annabeth's newly finished battlefield organizer. She flicked it on and input a few commands. Suddenly, a 3D hologram scale model of New York popped up. Cool.

"Now," she began, and I knew we could be here a while, "from what we saw in the IM, I figure we're looking at a two pronged attack."

She pointed to the edge of the city, and a red dot was placed in that spot.

"The army will enter here," she told us. "If what I saw was right, their forces will compose of foot soldiers and tanks. They'll travel along this path until about here."

She pointed to another spot in the city, and another red dot appeared. A red path connected the two dots, showing the path the army would take. Annabeth's calculations put the army at about halfway to the Empire State building.

"From there, it gets complicated," she told us. "The foot soldiers and tanks split up. The tanks will be loaded on to various cargo ships that will carry them to Olympus. The cargo ships will most likely be waiting here."

She pointed to another spot on the map, one that was about three quarters of the way to Olympus. I waited for the path to appear, showing the route the tanks would take.

Instead of one, several paths branched out, all eventually leading to where the cargo ships would be.

"The tanks could take any one of these paths," Annabeth explained. "Now, what they didn't bother to fix is that all the paths have at least on intersecting point before they reach the cargo planes. And it's right here."

She pointed to a spot where all the possible paths crossed each other. A red X appeared over that spot.

"There's still the foot soldiers to deal with," Thalia reminded.

"Right." Annabeth said. "They'll be heading for the Empire State building. To get there, they'll take any one of these paths."

Again the multiple paths showed up, and again Annabeth place a red X over the spot where all the paths crossed.

"The cargo ships will be waiting for the tanks, but some are solely going to operate as gunships. These and any other offensive air craft will have to be taken out. The best place to do that is right in the loading zone before they even take off."

She place a final X over where the cargo and attack planes and choppers would be waiting.

"We hit these three locations, and the invasion never reaches Olympus," Annabeth said proudly.

"After that," I mused, "we convince the leaders of the world not to try anything like this ever again."

"Thirty days," Nico scoffed. "We'll do it in a week."

"Get your battle gear together boys and girls. This should be fun," I joked.

_**And I think you guys know what will be happening in the next few chapters. Annabeth and the others made it sound so easy. Well I'm telling you now it won't be. The action begins, and so shall the sacrifice!**_


	6. First Strike

_**Sorry about missing yesterday's screw up. I missed the update deadline due to…well you don't want to know. What's worse is soon I'm leaving to an secret location while the Spetsnaz try to find me (yep, I'm up to my eyes in international trouble this time around.)**_

Nico's POV

I sat in the Hades cabin idly sharpening my sword. I stopped for a bit to stare at the blade. It looked sharp enough to shave with. Hm…

Just before I started, I heard a knock at the door. Behind it stood Thalia, who was staring into the light of one of the torches on the cabin. I cleared my throat and she looked at me.

"Oh, hey," she greeted. "I was just…uh"

"Want to come in?" I asked.

"Yes," she answered truthfully.

I let her in and shut the door behind us. I tried to get my heart rate under control, but I wasn't having much success. There was something about Thalia that I just couldn't put my finger on.

"So what are you doing here?" I asked, making an effort to be casual.

"I came to make sure you were actually prepping for the battle tomorrow," Thalia answered.

I tried not to sound disappointed as I answered. "Yeah well I'm ready. Sword's sharp, armor's polished, and I'm tired."

"Nico, do you even have a shield?" Thalia asked.

I punched the floor of the cabin. Instead of hitting the floor, my arm sank elbow deep into the earth. When I pulled my arm out, a shield like ribcage was securely fastened to my arm. I showed Thalia the shield I'd just pulled out of the ground. As usual, she wasn't impressed.

"Really Nico? Bone shield?" she asked.

"Wait for it," I urged.

The bones flattened and spread until I was wielding a disc shaped shield of solid bone as opposed to the ribcage I'd been holding earlier. The bone hardened and darkened until I was holding a black, iron shield with a silver engraved skull design and a gold trim on the edge. Thalia's eyes widened and she whistled.

"When did you learn how to do that?" she asked.

"Well my dad isn't just the god of the dead. He's also the god of precious metals. Combine with what I could do before and bingo I have an awesome shield," I explained.

"Huh. Expanding your powers Ghost Boy?" Thalia asked.

"Yeah Percy too," I said, moving in for the kill. "He's learning to control earthquakes. And meanwhile you're still working on lightning. Nice."

A small cloud appeared over my head and suddenly it started pouring. Lightning and thunder soon followed, and I was caught in my own personal storm. I looked at Thalia, but overly-innocent look on her face made it obvious she wasn't going to stop. I put up with the storm for a while, but then she added hail.

"Okay! Okay! Hail is cheating!" I shouted.

Thalia laughed and after she finally stopped she called off the storm. I rubbed my head which was sore from all the lightning strikes.

"Was that necessary?" I asked, moving closer to her without thinking.

She moved closer to me as she smugly responded, "As a matter of fact it was."

We were almost nose-to-nose when Grover burst in…again.

"Nico! Thalia! Get outside now!"

We ran outside to see Percy dodging hails of gunfire from a bunch of soldiers. _Mortal _soldiers. Used parachutes were scattered all over the ground, and Percy was a living blur as he dodged the bullets he didn't block with his shield.

A lightning bolt struck Thalia's quiver, and all her arrows crackled with electricity. She notched an arrow and aimed.

"Thalia," I said, "your arrows can't–"

She fired, and a mortal went down. Thalia fired off a few more lightning arrows, each one bringing down a mortal.

"You were saying?" Thalia asked smugly.

"How?" I asked.

"Specially charged lightning arrows. A good jolt of lightning and my arrows can hurt anything, mortal or otherwise," she explained.

There were still at least twenty soldiers however, and Percy couldn't dodge forever. I cleared my throat, and Thalia remembered Percy.

We both ran into the fray. I dodged, deflected, and sliced my way through the enemy ranks. Thalia fired volley after volley of arrows, bringing down more troops. Percy jumped back toward the canoe lake, and about five mortal troops followed him. They open fired, but Percy back flipped into the lake and an angry tidal wave shot out at the troops. They must've hit the ground hard or something, because they didn't get back up.

A hail of gunfire came my way, and I reacted. As I brought up my shield, I realized I couldn't bring it up fast enough. So I swung out with my sword while still raising my shield, and sliced three bullets out of the air before my shield was in place to block the rest. A brilliant flash went off behind me followed by a loud crash, and I was thrown to the ground.

I turned around to see a smoking crater and Thalia smirking evily. A scorched mortal lay off to the side.

"You so owe me di Angelo!" she shouted.

A mortal soldier came up behind her, gun raised. A skeleton rose out of the ground just in time to take the bullet, and the soldier who had fired it soon found my thrown sword in their chest.

"You were saying?" I shot back.

Thalia tossed me my sword. "We're even."

Percy ripped the assault rifle out of the mortal's hands and fired off the rest of the magazine into the enemy troops. Those who didn't die retreated.

We were just about to celebrate when Thalia shouted "Grenade! Get down!"

We all hit the dirt, and a huge explosion went off. As shrapnel and scorched earth rained down, a missile shot into the sky.

"Ha!" I shouted. "They missed by a mile."

"Nico, follow that thing's trajectory," Percy warned me.

"English Perce, English," I groaned.

"Follow the curve of the path to see where it lands," Percy translated.

I tried, but as far as I could tell it was going to crash into the harbor. Percy and Thalia however, must've known better.

"Scatter!" Percy shouted.

We all took off in separate directions, and the missile hit the ground. I got blown off my feet and so did Percy, but we were fine other than that. Another missile shot into the sky. But this time, a lightning bolt struck it as it reached its maximum height. I looked at Thalia, and she grinned.

"They're gonna have to do better than that," she said.

"I think that's the last of them," Percy said. "At least, it better be."

"Well," I said, "that was easy."

Percy looked at me like I was crazy. "You try fighting them without a sword next time."

I pretended to think about it. "Hm…nah I'll stick with the sword."

Percy glared at me, and I glared back. Someone cleared their throat, and we turned to see Rachel standing there looking annoyed, as if our fight had woken her up.

My energy faded from me, as if Rachel's upbeat nature sapped the life out of me. And it did.

"Do you three have any idea what time it is?" Rachel asked.

"No," Percy said. "Do– I mean I bet you do though."

You always had to be careful to never ask Rachel a question, because it usually resulted in a prophecy. One time, a new camper had asked where the bathroom was, and Rachel had given him some sort of scary toilet prophecy. Whatever it is she had said, that kid no longer used a toilet.

"Yeah it's like midnight," Rachel said, annoyed.

"Well you can leave now Rachel," Thalia said.

"Oh, and I also needed to tell you that Chiron wants to see all of you in the Big House."

"'Kay. Thanks Rachel," Percy said.

When we got to the Big House we were greeted by Annabeth, Clarisse, Chris, Luke, and Chiron. They all looked like they'd woken up from a nice, dreamless sleep.

"Hey guys," Percy greeted. "I'm guessing you noticed that little mishap."

"Percy, mortals have found a way into the camp," Chiron scolded. "This is no minor mishap."

"They must've come here to stop us from interfering with their plans," Annabeth guessed. "Thing is, how did they know we were going to?"

"Someone has got to be providing these guys with information on us," Clarisse stated firmly. "A spy?"

"No," I reasoned. "They were too unfocused. Whoever is feeding them intel on us doesn't have much on us to begin with. I'm thinking evil half-blood."

"There's only about ten of those left in existence," Percy said. "Think The Pit are the ones behind all of this?"

"Something had to drive the mortals off the deep end," I figured. "Why not them?"

"So it's not just the mortals we're fighting," Thalia said, "Nakamura and his crew want their butts kicked too."

"We'll deal with The Pit when the time comes," Chiron assured us. "In the mean time, we must focus on ending this invasion."

"He's right," Percy said. "Hope you guys can fall asleep fast, because we've got a lot of work to do tomorrow."

With that, we said our goodnights and headed back to our respective cabins.

_**So in the next chapter we will finally get to them fighting off the invasion force. Until then, I need you guys to review, because well...if I didn't want reviews then I wouldn't be posting this story. It's like Owch always says:**_

**_Never forget the aglet!_**


	7. Repel the Enemy part 1

_**Well, I know you all missed me, but hey when you're traveling the world on the run from the world's greatest minds of deduction, you tend to not update. I promise one day I'll explain why the world is out to get me, but that's an entirely different story. But hey like Owch would say in times like these: "How much money do you think I could get for that sofa?"**_

The seven of us stood at the top of the Empire State building, with Luke keeping an eye on the approaching army with some binoculars he "borrowed" from a local convenience store. Hey he's a son of Hermes, what are you going to do?

Meanwhile, we were kicking back and waited for the enemy to get closer. Thalia was staring out at the New York skyline, trying not to hyperventilate. Nico was staring at Thalia. Annabeth and Clarisse were arguing about something unimportant, and Chris was standing idly off to the side. I was staring at the blade of Riptide, doubts forming in my mind.

Last night had made me realize something. I was fighting an enemy my weapon couldn't touch. Water powers were cool and all, but a water source wasn't always guaranteed to be nearby. And my earthquake powers? Still a work in progress, and I could barely control them. I felt useless.

Nico's sword was Stygian iron, so he was fine. Thalia's arrows, as she demonstrated last night, worked fine against the mortals too. Chris's revolvers fired bullets of half steel half Celestial bronze. Knowing Annabeth, she'll probably think of a way to fight the mortals too. Clarisse? Like she really needed a weapon to kick ass. Luke was the only other one who might have trouble.

"Guys," Luke called. "They're coming into position."

"Let's rock," Nico said.

He grabbed Clarisse and Chris and pulled them with him as he shadow traveled. A lightning bolt struck where Thalia and Luke were standing, and they were gone.

"Ready?" I asked Annabeth.

She nodded. "Just remember, we're fighting the tanks."

"How could I forget?" I joked.

I wrapped my arms around her and we evaporated in a cloud of mist.

Nico's POV

We emerged in a dark alley near the contact area. Clarisse shuddered involuntarily from the shadow travel lag. Chris looked pretty shaken up too.

"Geez Nico warn us next time," Chris grumbled.

"Incoming mortals," Clarisse warned.

We turned to see several troops marching through the city. One of them shot their gun into the sky, and the crowd of pedestrians scattered. I drew my sword and raised my shield. Chris gripped his revolvers in their holsters. Clarisse…well she had a shield.

The mortal forces were getting close. Might as well try to be diplomatic about this.

"Attention idiotic mortal gun slinging slimeballs!" I shouted. "This is your only warning! Back off, go home, and forget Olympus, and we won't have to destroy you!"

The leader of the squad/unit/whatever shouted back, "You and what army?"

I pointed at Clarisse, and the mortals laughed. Big mistake. Clarisse roared and charged, with nothing but a shield and battle armor. She rammed and bashed anyone foolish enough to get in her way, and before the mortals had fired their first shot, Clarisse had wiped half of them out.

Chris drew his revolvers, spun them once in his hands, and finally unleashed his steel and Celestial bronze bullets on our adversaries. With each shot, a marine fell dead. I leaped over the line of fire with inhuman agility and landed behind enemy lines. I cut down one marine with my sword and bashed another to the ground with my shield.

Clarisse was using weapons she'd taken from fallen soldiers, including a fully loaded M16 one of them had dropped. She was good with that gun. If something was caught in her sights, it was going to go down. Just as the last soldier fell, more shwoed up.

Clarisse and Chris open fired, providing cover fire while I sprinted to close the gap between the enemy and my sword. I took two down in one swipe, and after blocking a hail of bullets, I threw my shield to take out another.

Without my shield, I became a very vulnerable target. Or so the mortals thought. With speed that no ordinary mortal could match, I sliced incoming bullets out of the sky as I made my way to my shield. If it wasn't for my battlefield reflexes, I would never have been able to figure out where the shots were coming from. I dived out of the way of more bullets and rolled to a stop in front of my shield. An unlucky mortal ran toward me, firing as he went. I dodged his bullets matrix style.

As he got closer, he raised his rifle to strike me with it. I blocked with my sword just in time. He slammed me in the face with the butt end of the gun and aimed for my head. I swiped my sword, taking off the barrel of the gun. My second swipe sent the bleeding form of my adversary to the floor. I scooped up my shield and turned to face the army just in time to block a hail of bullets coming my way.

As I fought, I was vaguely aware of Chris climbing up a traffic light, but I didn't pay it much attention. It wasn't until he started to open fire on the soldiers that I really noticed him. The mortals noticed too, and they completely ignored me as they turned their guns to aim at Chris.

Chris was long gone, already leaping to the ground, firing as he went. He didn't miss a single shot, and while they were distracted with him, I took down a few with my sword. Clarisse finished off the rest.

As the last one fell, several more came around the corner, fresh and ready for battle. Clarisse ran for cover and Chris climbed up the side of a building, leaving me to play bait for their little ambush. I saw the army approach, maybe hundreds of them. I was one demigod, already starting to feel tired. I love being the target. I willed an small army of undead warriors to rise and back me up.

My army clashed with the enemy, but the mortals were pretty good fighters, and soon my army and the mortal army was pushed back, right in range of Clarisse and Chris. Chris was to my right, and Clarisse was on my left. I whistled, and they both open fired. But even as I fought off the stragglers, I saw more mortals approaching. It was like fighting the Hydra. I would cut down one mortal, and two more would show up. I ran to engage the incoming forces while Chris and Clarisse dealt with the rest.

I slid baseball style in between two mortals and swung my sword in a full three-hundred and sixty degree arc, tripping both mortals. I leaped up just as bullets peppered where had been sliding seconds earlier.

I bashed a mortal out of the way and sliced another one underfoot with my sword. I hilt slammed one in the shoulder and bashed him to the floor with my shield. I side-stepped a hail of gunfire directed at me and kicked and one to the ground. Mortal after mortal fell, and with each one I defeated I had a little less fight left in me. My sword felt heavy in my hands. Sweat clouded my vision. My movements lost their power. Bit by bit, I lost my energy.

"I'm out!" Clarisse shouted. She'd been scavenging ammo from the fallen, but apparently that wasn't working for her at the moment.

As more shots were fired, I heard a girl scream.

"Clarisse!" Chris shouted.

It was then that I made my fatal mistake. I turned to see what had happened to Clarisse. Chris was running to her when something like a missile streaked in their direction, and then I lost them in the flames of the explosion.

"No!" I shouted. And while my back was turned to the enemy, I heard something tear through the air.

I turned back just in time to see an RPG explode at my feet.

_**I hope you enjoyed this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it. So yes I'm back, the chapters will keep coming again, and the next chapter is already up because I feel sorry for abandoning you guys like I did. *Ahem* Are Nico, Chris, and Clarisse okay? Is the plan to save humanity crumbling apart? How are the others fairing in their part of the action? Tune in next time to find out!**_


	8. Repel the Enemy part 2

_**I said the next chappy was up and I'm a man of my word. So yes, Nico and co. failed. How'd everybody else do? Well, Owch here would like to take a guess.**_

_**Owch: My wife left me for statue.**_

_**Me: Oh uh…I'm sorry? Anyway next chapter let's move!**_

_**Disclaimer: I don't own Frogger.**_

We reformed right smack dab in the middle of a busy four way intersection. Annabeth screamed next to me.

"Holy Athena!" she jumped away, narrowly missing a car.

One car slammed into me, and I went flying. I landed somewhere else in the street feeling dead. I groaned and rolled onto my back just in time to see a speeding semi-truck headed my way. My eyes went wide and I jumped out of the way. Of course though, I jumped into a different oncoming car and got batted into the trailer the semi was hauling, and bounced off that a got hit in the butt my _another _car. Did I mention I sucked at Frogger video games? Finally, I pulled off an impossible back flip onto the nearby sidewalk.

I was covered in bruises, and several of my bones felt broken. I looked around for Annabeth, but I couldn't see her. Oh gods, what if she'd been ran over? What if–?

"You okay?" she asked me.

"Annabeth" I shouted and pulled her into a tight hug.

I instantly regretted that, because broken ribs and hugs don't mix.

"Ow…" I groaned.

My eyes fell on a nearby fire hydrant. I'd probably regret this in two seconds but…

I uncapped Riptide and cut the valve off of the fire hydrant. The water sprayed me in the face, and I felt my bones and bruises start to heal. People ran away from the water, not wanting to get wet. When I figured I was healed, I replaced the valve back on as best as I could.

"Menace!" a mortal shouted.

"That's wasting water!" another yelled.

Annabeth rolled her eyes at me. "Way to make them like us Seaweed Brain."

I laughed at my old nickname. "Hey, not my problem they hate the water."

Annabeth almost said something, but was interrupted by someone who screamed, "Tanks! Lots and lots of tanks!"

"That's our cue," I said.

Annabeth smiled for a second, then her face got serious. "Guess it is."

There were at least ten tanks that I could count. My ADHD was acting up, and I'd get bored of counting right around ten every time.

"Did it ever occur to you we brought knives and swords to a tank fight?" I asked Annabeth.

She reached into her backpack and pulled out a few jars of Greek fire. She tossed a few to me.

"As a matter of fact it did," she told me.

We split up, Annabeth circling around to take out the ones in the back while I handled the ones in the front. I rolled the Greek fire at one tank, counting off the seconds until detonation. _Five…four…three…_

BOOM! I must've started counting to late, because it went off early and the tank was flipped on its side instead of being blown to bits. The other tanks didn't even slow down as gunners climbed out of the hatches in the remaining tanks and they all trained their machine guns on me. Oh gods.

The guns burst to life, but I was long gone. I landed behind one of the gunners and knocked him out with one punch. As the rest of his buddies inside the tank notice me, I shut the hatch and jumped onto a different tank. I lifted the gunner out of his seat and hurled him to the streets. As I threw him, I stole one of his hand grenades and tossed it down the hatch and into the tank with his friends.

I leaped down to the streets just as the grenade went off. All this time the machine guns had been blazing, trying to tear me to shreds in a stream of bullets. One grazed my arm and the pain shot up like fire. I ignored it as best as I could, trying to focus on life.

Another tank exploded. _Annabeth._ I rolled away as bullets peppered my former position. I jumped onto another tank, not sure if I could pull off what I had in mind. But hey it works in the movies.

I yanked the gunner out of his seat and tried to throw him but he struggled free of my grasp and staggered onto the tank with me. He drew his knife, and I held up my arms to show I was unarmed. He surged forward, and I made my move. I side-stepped his charge and yanked his sidearm out of its holster. Before he could turn around, there was a bullet in his head.

After disposing of the crew of the tank, I tossed the gun to the side and slipped into the tank. As I slid behind the controls of the main gun, another tank went up in a ball of green fire. I aimed the gun carefully and fired. A tank blew up. I trained the gun on a different tank, but stopped when I saw Annabeth on top of it fighting with the gunner. I climbed up to the machine gun and fired off a few rounds at the man fighting Annabeth. Annabeth whipped her head around to see what had just happened.

I waved and climbed back down to the controls of the main gun. As soon as Annabeth was clear I fired, and a tank blew up. A different tank swiveled its main gun around to face me. Uh-oh. I jumped out of the tank just in time.

I sprinted for cover, with Annabeth right behind me.

"Why did _we _get the hard job?" I complained.

"Hard?" Annabeth laughed. "I haven't had this much fun since the honeymoon!"

I laughed too. "Oh yeah. Remember the look on Athena's face when–"

"LOOK OUT!" Annabeth shouted and we both ducked as machine gun fire tore through the air over our heads.

"Okay, fight now, trip down memory lane later!" I suggested.

"Good idea!" Annabeth shouted back. We split up again as the car we were hiding behind exploded.

I hit the stopwatch button on my watch, and it expanded into a shield. Bullets pinged off harmlessly as I ran toward in between two tanks. They both trained their guns on me. I jumped. The guns adjusted aim and fired. I dodged the two cannon rounds in mid air and they soared past each other and collided with the opposite tank, taking down both tanks.

Annabeth side stepped as a cannon round flew at her. I suddenly felt a wrenching pain in my gut, and the ground started to shake. As the pain got worse, the tremors grew more powerful, until the shaking was rattling my eyeballs. I tried to focus it and raised my hands in the direction of the last two tanks. Buildings around them started to crumble, and two huge chunks of concrete fell, crushing the tanks. I collapsed, and the tremors stopped. Annabeth ran up to me and helped me sit up.

"You okay?" she asked.

I nodded weakly. "Yeah. Just never tried…something that big before."

One of the gunners I'd thrown to the street snuck up on us. I heard him draw his pistol. Annabeth saw him first.

"Percy watch out!" she shouted, and we both hit the dirt in time to dodge the bullet. I got up and hit him across the face. He fell to the floor, and his radio dropped to the ground. Something crackled over the channel.

"–ercy! Thalia! Somebody! We're up to our eyes in mortals! Chris is down and we need help NOW! Hello? Oh gods…GET DOWN!"

The line went dead. I looked at Annabeth. Nico was in serious trouble, and Chris was maybe dead.

"Where are they again?" I asked Annabeth.

She opened up her GPS. "They're near the Hudson river."

"Let's go," I said, and we both took off. In the back of my mind, I wondered how Thalia and Luke were doing.

_**Well, two chapters in one day and I still leave you with a cliffhanger. That's just the way I am. Can Percy and Annabeth make it to Nico and Clarisse in time to help? Is Chris gonna make it? How are Thalia and Luke holding up? Tune in next time to find out! Don't kill me!**_


	9. Repel the Enemy part 3

_**I'm still not going to tell you if Nico and Clarisse are okay yet. That's next chapter. Until then, here it is the details on what Luke and Thalia were doing while Nico and co. were getting killed and Percy and Annabeth were blowing up tanks. Read, review, and don't– *sniper bullet hits chest* **_

Thalia's POV

We reappeared in a burst of lightning. Luke's hair was a little singed, but nothing serious. At least, not until I realized we were on the edge of a skyscraper thirty stories up. I almost fainted before I got a grip on my fear. Down below I could see all kinds of aircraft. Attack choppers, AC-130's, Pavelows, harriers, stealth bombers, fighter jets, and how do I even know the names of all that stuff? Sit and watch Nico play Call of Duty for six hours. You learn a few things.

Anyway, it looked like someone had stashed the entire air force in this tiny little nook of New York. I looked at Luke, who was checking out the enemy too.

"Think we can take 'em?" I asked.

"Shh!" he ordered. "Listen."

I tried, and I could just barely hear tiny little mumblings that might have sounded like voices.

"What am I supposed to be hear–"

"Shh!" Luke hissed.

I was getting mad now. "Listen bub. If you think you can just interrupt me whenever you–"

"Will you just be quiet? I can't hear what they're saying!" Luke said.

I rolled my eyes but stayed silent. Luke squinted at the tiny pilots below, as if that would help him hear.

"Looks like Percy and Annabeth got a head start," Luke said finally.

"What?" I asked.

"Report just came in over the radio. The tanks are under attack," he explained.

"How'd you hear that?" I asked.

"My dad's god of messengers. So naturally, I can listen in on messages if I focus enough," Luke said.

"Is everyone getting new powers these days?" I asked.

"Seems that way doesn't it?" Luke said, backing away from the ledge.

"Luke, what are you doing?" I asked.

The air support's been ordered to take off without the tanks," he told me, getting into a running stance.

"So that means you're going to…what?" I asked.

He winked at me. "See you at the bottom!"

And then he ran to the ledge and jumped. What the Hades? I ran to the edge and watched him fall. A harrier was rising into the sky, and Luke landed perfectly on top of it. From there he leaped onto a slowly ascending AC-130 and finally made the last jump to the ground. _Whoa. _

I decided to lightning travel instead. A bolt struck where I was standing and I was carried into the sky. The bolt struck again, this time at the ground next to Luke, and I appeared in front of him.

"_Pft_," Luke said. "Took the easy way down I see."

"Less talk, more destruction," I ordered.

Lightning struck my quiver, charging my arrows with lightning. I drew an arrow and after carefully aiming, fired at the cockpit of a fighter jet. The arrow pierced the canopy and killed the pilot, and the jet crashed into a still grounded helicopter. The harrier Luke had landed on earlier turned and fired its guns at me. I raised Aegis in time to block, but the force of the bullets knocked me down. While the weapons of the harrier recycled, I got up and fired off more arrows, bringing down the harrier.

Luke jumped into a Pavelow as it took off and hurled the pilot back to the ground. He slid behind the controls and turned the guns on the aircraft that was still grounded. As the guns lit up the aircraft, several ships took off. At least three fighter jest and an AC-130 made it past Luke. The fighter jets circled around, closing in on Luke. I waved my hand, and a lightning bolt struck them out of the sky. This was way too easy.

At least that's what I thought until I turned around and saw the an AC-130 flying straight for me with its propellers positioned in just the right position to shred me to bits. I slung my bow on my back and threw one of my hunting knives, hoping to jam the propeller. The knife did its job just long enough for me to slip through, then it snapped and the gunship took off.

More and more aircrafts were taking off, and Luke and I couldn't stop them all. That's when a missile hit the tail end of Luke's Pavelow, and he started spinning out of control. I summoned all the power I had, trying to focus on the wind. Slowly, a cyclone formed around Luke's Pavelow and guided it safely to the ground. As soon as it touched down, Luke jumped out and I collapsed.

Luke ran over to me, dodging bullets from an attack chopper that was trying to kill him. Luke turned and threw his knife at the chopper. It didn't seem like an effective way to take out a chopper, until the blade jammed the rotors and the attack chopper fell to the ground, exploding on impact.

"You okay?" he asked.

I slowly stood up. "Yeah, just feeling weak. Drained."

Luke nodded and pointed to the sky. All the ships had either taken off or been destroyed. We'd only taken out half of the ships, so they still had more than enough air support to attack Olympus.

I looked to my left and saw one remaining aircraft. An attack helicopter, with a huge minigun sticking out of the side. The rotors of the helicopter slowly started to turn. Luke saw it and smiled. Without a word, he ran over and jumped into the helicopter before it could take off. The copilot flew out the other side. After a few more seconds, Luke tumbled out the opposite side, followed by the pilot.

The pilot drew a combat knife, but Luke dodged and dislocated the man's shoulder. As the pilot hit the ground, Luke backhanded him and the pilot fell unconscious.

The radios on the two former pilots crackled to life.

"Percy! Thalia! Somebody! We're up to our eyes in mortals! Chris is down and we need help NOW! Hello? Oh gods…GET DOWN!"

The transmission went dead, and Luke jumped into the helicopter, motioning for me to follow him. I hesitated.

"Luke what are you thinking?" I asked.

"Nico needs help," Luke said as he started up the rotors again, preparing for take off. "Why not give it in the form of air support?"

I had to admit it was a good idea, but that didn't change the fact that I hated flying. _Do it for Nico. Do it for Nico. _That's what I kept telling myself as I climbed onboard. We took off, Luke looked at me.

"Thalia, get to the gunner's chair. Someone's gotta shoot the mortals," he said.

I looked at the gunner's chair. It was a seat attached to the minigun and it was right on the edge of the helicopter. I shivered just thinking about sitting in it.

"Um, no thanks," I said.

"Okay, you fly then," Luke said, releasing his grip on the controls.

We started to spin out of control, and I shoved Luke back into the pilot's seat.

"No, no!" I shouted. "You fly, I shoot."

I slid behind the minigun and gripped the controls so tightly my knuckles turned white. We were flying very high, very fast, and I was trying not to hyperventilate. Luke casually piloted the helicopter, getting to the position Nico and his team should be at.

What I saw was five or six skeleton warriors fighting off hordes and hordes of mortals. Backing up the warriors was a single black figure. Nico.

I aimed the minigun and fired, tearing into mortal ranks. Everywhere I pointed the gun, mortals dropped. I have to admit, it was kinda fun being behind the controls of a turbo-charged bullet spewing machine of mass destruction. As the mortals continued to scatter, something streaked toward us like a missile. Luke sent the copter into a hard dodge, barely avoiding whatever had just been shot at us.

"RPG's," Luke grumbled. "These guys aren't messing around!"

I swiveled the minigun in the direction of where the RPG (Rocket Propelled Grenade) had come from and said, "Neither are we."

I open fired, turning whoever shot at us into a shredded mess. There were still a lot of mortals, and they were starting to scatter too thinly for the minigun to be effective.

Percy's POV

By the time Annabeth and I got there, Nico was surrounded, Chris and Clarisse were no where to be found, and some damn copter was lighting up the streets with a huge minigun.

The Hudson river was nearby. Perfect. I willed the river to attack. Some soldiers drowned, others were slammed into the ground and didn't get back up. My sword was useless, but my shield wasn't…

I raised my shield and charged, slamming any still standing mortals into the ground. The helicopter mad another pass, and I raised my shield defensively. Bu then I saw who was behind the controls of the gun.

"Is that…" I began.

"Thalia!" Annabeth shouted.

I saw a single black clad figure collapse from exhaustion, and I remembered why I was here in the first place.

"Nico!" I shouted. I grabbed Annabeth's arm. "C'mon let's move."

_**Well, that went well. Nico is saved, the tanks are destroyed, and the air support is only half of what it was intended. Plus, now the demigods have a helicopter and THALIA is the gunner. Mortals, say your prayers, especially if they Nico dies nexy chapter. Come to think of it, if Nico dies next chapter, I need to say my prayers. Will Nico make it? What about the other half of the air support? Have they ended the invasion, or is this only the beginning? Tune in next time to find out!**_


	10. Battle of the Sky

_**Trust me when I say you guys won't want to kill me for the death of Nico, but you will still want me dead for who dies in this story. Just saying, sharpen your knives and load your guns. Anyway, here's the chappy.**_

_**Owch: Baby come back!**_

_**Me: Owch how did you get here?**_

Nico looked pretty bashed up. His face was blackened and stained here and there with dried blood. His clothes were scorched and burned, and his left side was bloody. I saw the bullet hole, and I knew it was bad. He saw us coming and very weakly stood up, grimacing and wincing all the way.

"Nico hang on," I told him as the helicopter landed. "We're gonna get you out of here.

Nico shook his head. "Not…without…others."

Annabeth nodded. "Where are they Nico?"

Nico pointed off at some pile of rubble. Annabeth nodded, telling Nico she understood.

"Alright, I'll get Clarisse and Chris, you load Nico onto the copter," Annabeth told me.

I lugged Nico into the helicopter. When Thalia saw him, her jaw dropped. She took him in her arms and laid him down in one of the passenger chairs as gently as possible. Annabeth soon arrived with Clarisse behind her. In Clarisse's arms was the crumpled form of Chris. He looked as bad as Nico, except he didn't have a gunshot wound.

Once we were all on board, Annabeth sat down in the copilot's seat and told Luke to take off. I expected Thalia to freeze up because we were so high in the air, but she was too focused on Nico to really care.

"You're gonna be okay," she whispered.

He gripped her hands tightly and looked sadly into her eyes. She didn't seem to mind even though she was a huntress.

"Did…did we win?" Nico asked.

Thalia wiped a tear from her face. "Yeah. We did."

"Gods damn…" Nico breathed. "We actually did it."

Thalia smiled sadly. Nico's eyes slowly shut, and a single tear rolled down Thalia's cheek. She fingered the magic necklace she'd gotten three years ago. As far as I knew, she still didn't know what it did. In desperation, she slid the necklace around Nico's neck. The brilliant sky blue gem glowed, then faded to a dazzling cobalt. Nico gasped and the wounds slowly faded on his skin.

"Did that thing just do what I think it did?" I asked.

"I think it did," Thalia said. "Oh wow I'm exhausted."

Thalia fell to the floor, and I rushed to her side. I tried shaking her awake, but she wouldn't even stir. Nico opened his eyes. As soon as he saw her, he freaked.

"Oh gods! Get some ambrosia now!" he shouted.

"Nico, calm down," I tried.

"Percy, her life force is almost completely drained. I'm watching her die!" Nico shouted. "Now get her some nectar or ambrosia or something!"

Annabeth pulled a canteen full of nectar from her backpack and handed it to Nico. He held it to her mouth.

"C'mon, drink…drink…" Nico begged.

Thalia coughed and came to. "What just happened?"

"The necklace," Annabeth said.

"What?" I asked.

"The necklace. It drained Thalia's life force into Nico."

Thalia and Nico both shivered. Luke cleared his throat.

"Hey, I hate to interrupt whatever it is you guys are doing back there, but we've got like half the Air Force to tear up still," Luke said.

"He's right," Chris said shakily.

"Well what are we waiting for?" I asked. "Let's finish this."

Luke pushed the helicopter to max speed, and we went flying after the enemy aircraft.

Thalia looked at my arm. "You're bleeding."

"What?" I asked.

"Your arm. It's bleeding. I thought you were invulnerable."

"When I almost died from the power overload three years ago," I explained, "my invulnerability gave out from the strain. I haven't tried to get it back since."

"Wow," Thalia said. "You lost your invulnerability again?"

"If I were you I wouldn't try to get it back," Nico said.

"Why not?" I asked.

"Because the Styx failed to kill you twice so far. But like they say, third time's the charm," he said.

"He's got a point," Annabeth said. "Maybe you're just not meant to be invulnerable."

"Guess so," I said.

We soon caught up with the other enemy helicopters, who weren't going full speed. Thalia stood up, but Nico gently pulled her back into her seat.

"You're sitting this one out," he told her.

So instead, it was Clarisse who slid behind the minigun controls And aimed at the other copters. We got a message over the radio.

"Chopper twenty-six, you're late. State your situation."

Luke grabbed the radio to respond. "Ah, well…our situation. Yeah, well we're not here to blow you out of the sky if that's what you're thinking."

"Who is this?" the other pilot asked.

Clarisse open fired, bringing down one helicopter almost instantly. The other helicopters peeled off, turning to return fire.

"Way to be subtle Clarisse!" Luke shouted as he pulled the helicopter into a steep climb. He started flicking random switches and pressing colorful buttons.

"Luke what are you doing?" I asked.

"Seeing if there's anything on this thing besides the minigun," he told me.

Two missiles streaked out, flying harmlessly into the sky. Luke leveled us out, and sped forward, enemy helicopters already closing in.

"Alright!" he shouted. "Now which switch was that?"

Something hit us, and the helicopter started to plummet. Luke struggled to slow our decent.

"What just happened?" I asked.

"If you'll look out your windows, you'll see that the rear rotors are on fire," Luke said in flight attendant-speak.

He faced forward and his eyes widened. "And if you look to the front, you'll see a couple of air-to-air missile hurtling towards us."

"Everybody jump!" I screamed.

We all leaped out of the helicopter just before the missiles hit. The helicopter exploded in a huge fireball, and we all plummeted helplessly to the ground.

"This worked so much better in my head!" I yelled.

"Anybody know how to fly?" Nico screamed as we fell.

Very slowly, the clouds above us began to swirl. I looked to Thalia to see her eyes closed in concentration. The funnel cloud grew, slowly forming a tornado. Before we knew it, we were sucked upward along with the two remaining enemy helicopters.

"Are…you…crazy?" I shouted at Thalia as the tornado swirled me around in a wide circle.

I smacked into the nose of an enemy helicopter, along with Clarisse Chris and Luke. We climbed into the helicopter, swiftly taking out the two pilots. The tornado died down, and Luke jumped to the controls, soon stabilizing the helicopter. As the clouds cleared, I saw the other helicopter, with Annabeth in the pilot's chair. Thalia voice came over the radio.

"Still think I'm crazy Jackson?"

I grabbed the radio and spoke. "Yes."

"Whatever," Thalia grumbled. "We've got to catch up with the rest of the fleet. By my count we've got three Ac-130's, about ten fighter jets, and a stealth bomber."

"My kind of fun," I joked.

We flew off, hoping to catch up with the rest of the air support.

_**Alright. Two demigod choppers, we're learning what Thalia's necklace does, Nico's alive, Owch is hanging by his toes on the Statue of Liberty, all is well mi amigops. Can the gang catch up to the other aircraft? Is this invasion really all the mortals have up their sleeve? Can Percy and the gang convince the USA to stop attacking Olympus? Tune in next time to find out!**_


	11. Shot Down

_**Before I go on I want to thank TheJazzyDolphin for giving me the idea for this chapter. You rock and you will be featured in that tiny award ceremony I do at the end of each of my stories! Anyway, we've passed the first ten chapters, I lost the Spetznaz back in Guam, my bullet wound is healing nicely, so why not**_

_***door is kicked in* Sgt Graunder: Freeze! Did you think you could hide forever?**_

_**Me: Been a while, hasn't it…Agent 001.**_

_**Transmitting Chapter…**_

Olympus POV

"They're fighting hard," Zeus commented emotionlessly.

"They'll succeed in repelling the invasion, I have no doubt about this," Athena said.

"Maybe," Zeus said. "But that doesn't solve the problem. The mortals are already planning another invasion against Olympus, not to mention the ones against the Underworld and Poseidon's realm. If they are to succeed, they will need a miracle."

"A miracle you have forbidden us from providing," Hermes grumbled.

"These so called heroes are defying Olympus. I will not have you helping them," Zeus said.

"They're not defying Olympus, they're just defying you and your plan," Hades put in.

Zeus turned his glare on Hades, but the God of the Underworld merely shrugged. "Just saying."

"Be that as it may," Zeus huffed, "the council ruled majority in favor of wiping out mankind. The children are acting out against our final decision."

"If it was a final decision," Athena put in, "a suggestion from the young Perseus would not have stopped you from carrying out your plan. Deep down you know that this is wrong. That is why you gave them a chance to fix this."

Zeus merely turned away. He wasn't about to admit he was wrong, but it was hard to out reason the goddess of wisdom.

"Brother Poseidon, do you have something to say?" Zeus asked.

Poseidon had been staring out at the sea far below the entire time, not really paying attention to the Council or the battle that the demigods were fighting. Poseidon looked up at Zeus.

"My son is down there right now," Poseidon said. "He's risking his life, trying to fix what he sees as a very big mistake. He's fighting a war with only six people to back him up, and his weapons don't even work against his opponents. And I'm sitting here, wondering if I made the right decision. Because if my son falls in battle, it will have been _my _decision that sent him to that fate."

The gods fell silent, unsure how to respond. So they all simply watched seven brave, young demigods took on the United States' best.

_"I haven't had this much fun since the honeymoon!" Annabeth said happily._

Aphrodite giggled at that, and Athena was glaring daggers remembering that _awful _day. True, she'd come to accept that Percy and Annabeth were in love. Hades, she'd even developed some form of respect for Percy over the years. But that didn't mean she had to be okay with what had happened _that night. _

The gods turned their attentions away from Percy and Annabeth for a bit to watch as Thalia and Luke fought against the mortal air support.

"That's my boy," Hermes said proudly when Luke stole a Pavelow and then an attack chopper."

"Kleptomaniac," Athena said.

"I'm sure he'd take that as a compliment," Hermes said.

Nobody noticed when Hades winced as Nico collapsed from exhaustion. Nobody saw a single tear roll down the god's cheek as he watched his son die. When Nico took hold of Thalia hands as he lay there dying, even Artemis restrained herself, for the Son of Hades was supposedly on his deathbed, or death seat in this case. Then when Thalia used her necklace to bring Nico back, the other gods failed to see Hades smile for the first time in a long time. They were too busy staring at Aphrodite, who was squealing happily.

Things remained quiet until Percy set foot on the helicopter.

"Oh, he'd better not," Zeus said angrily.

"I think he's gonna," Apollo stated.

The helicopter rose into the sky, with Percy still in it.

"That retched fool!" Zeus shouted. "I'll blast him to Tartarus for daring to enter my domain!"

Zeus rose in his seat, restrained by several of the other gods.

"Let go!" Zeus ordered. "The fool must pay!"

"You have forbidden us from interfering with this quest Zeus," Hera reminded him. "It's only fair you also avoid interference."

Zeus slowly stopped struggling, and eventually sat back in his throne.

"Alright, but I don't like it," he grumbled.

Poseidon left the throne room, looking worse than ever. The gods looked at each other, unsure what to do with the god of the sea.

"I'll talk to him," Athena said.

Athena found Poseidon near the edge of Olympus, leaning on a safety rail and staring out into the sea, his eyes glazed over.

"Are you alright?" she asked.

Poseidon didn't turned to look at her as he answered. "Since when do you care?"

Athena remained silent, and Poseidon sighed in defeat. "No, not really."

Athena leaned against the rail as well. "I suppose I understand."

"Do you really think they can win this fight?" Poseidon asked, still not looking at Athena.

"Yes," Athena said. "I do."

"What are the odds that all of them will survive?" Poseidon asked.

"Not very good," Athena admitted. "They at an all around disadvantage. Perhaps the only thing working in their favor is the mortals' overconfidence. But even that will cease to exist for the most part once the mortals admit defeat in the first battle."

"Isn't this whole thing just one battle?" Poseidon asked, confused.

"No Poseidon," Athena said, walking away. Poseidon turned to watch her leave, and she turned back one last time. "It's a war."

Poseidon turned back to the sea, searching for answers that he knew he wouldn't find. _Stay safe Percy. Stay alive._

Percy's POV

Luke suddenly sat up in his seat, more alert.

"Uh, guys," he called, both to us and into the radio so the others could hear.

"What?" Annabeth's voice asked over the radio.

"I got some good news and some bad news," Luke announced.

"Good news?" I asked.

The remaining aircrafts were just ordered to pull out and return to base," Luke informed us.

"Bad news?" Nico asked over the radio.

"They've been ordered to shoot us out of the sky on their way out," Luke said hurriedly.

Thalia's voice came over the radio. "Oh gods I hate flying."

No sooner had she said it when we heard the roar of jet engines. Annabeth pushed her helicopter into a steep dive, and I heard Thalia say something that I cannot repeat.

Missile streaked by, and Luke pulled up to avoid them. As we tried to see where the shots were coming from, a missile hit us, and Clarisse and I were blown out of the helicopter.

"Oooooohhhhhhhh CRAP!" I shouted.

We plummeted straight for…the ocean? This just got easier. I hit the water smoothly, and I used my powers to make sure Clarisse's landing was just as smooth…more or less.

Luke fought with the controls, but the helicopter crashed into the ocean all the same. Annabeth was flying the other helicopter as best as she could, but a helicopter wasn't much in a dogfight if you were up against an F22 fighter. Pretty soon, missiles struck her helicopter out of the sky, but not before her, Thalia, and Nico jumped out.

I used my powers to make sure they didn't go splat on the surface of the water. Once I knew they were okay, I swam toward the burning wreckage of Luke's helicopter. Something floated away from the flaming wreck. Too big to be a person…but I still saw a pale hand. I swam for whatever it was, and dove underwater when it started to sink.

Underwater I saw Luke and Chris both drifting under, neither of them breathing, neither of them moving. I quickly formed and air bubble and resurfaced.

I motioned for the others to follow me, and soon we were all huddled in an air bubble, drifting with the currents. That's when I felt it. The tiniest brush against my being. A voice echoed in my head. _Stay safe. Stay alive._

_**001: Their lost. Adrift at sea. The heroes have lost. You're story is over 003! **_

_**Me: Hey what's that?" *smacks 001 when he turns around* Okay well that was easier than I thought it would be. Anyway…*ahem* Where will the demigods drift to? Will Percy be able to see them safely back to the mainland? If this was just the first part of the mortal attack, what's next? Tune in next time to find out! Oh and TheJazzyDolphin, thanks again for this chapter idea.**_


	12. Where are we?

_**Something tells me that this story wasn't going to be long enough without these next few chapters. And now that I think about it, this chapter could set up MAJOR drama for **__**Nico di Angelo and the Great Resurrection**__**, so yeah, things are going to drift away from the war. Nico fans, eat you're heart out. NOT LITERALLY!**_

Nico's POV

I woke up laying on something soft and comfortable. Slowly, I pushed myself up and opened my eyes. That's when I realized I was laying on top of Thalia. I jumped off immediately, hoping Artemis and Zeus weren't going to zap me. Thunder rumbled in the distance, but other than that I was good.

Slowly, my friends started to wake up. Luke rubbed his eyes and yawned. Percy stretched as he woke up, accidentally hitting Chris in the face as he did.

"Ugh, where are we?" Clarisse asked.

We all looked at Percy, who had perfect bearings at sea. He waded into the water until it was waist deep.

"Fort- two five…nor-south…" Percy clutched his head like he had a headache.

He looked at us in horror. "Guys, I don't know where we are. Whenever I try to figure out our position, I keep getting some kind of static."

I looked around at the island we were on with new found curiosity.

"What is this place?" Annabeth asked.

"It's whatever I want it to be," a voice said from behind us.

Instantly, we all drew our weapons. Percy uncapped Riptide and activated his shield. I drew my sword and got my shield off my back while Thalia readied her bow and notched several arrows at once. Chris drew his guns, Annabeth pulled out her knife so fast I barely saw her move, and Luke pulled his own sword out. Clarisse, having lost her shield, simply raised her fists. Between the seven of us, I pitied the person who might want to take us on.

We turned to see a beautiful girl, dressed in gray Greek battle armor without a helmet. Her eyes were a hypnotic black and she had red hair that came down to just past her shoulders. I tried to focus on the fact that she may be a threat instead of the curves of her body, but that was easier said than done.

When she saw the seven of us ready to fight, she merely laughed. "You're weapons, please. We don't want to make a mess of things."

She crooked her finger, as if beckoning us to come closer, but instead our weapons were ripped out of our hands and hurled into the ocean. We all looked shocked.

"Oh, Ethan was wrong," she said. "This is going to be _easy._"

"Who are you?" Percy asked.

"Helen, daughter of Morpheus, although for cliché's sake I could say I'm your worst nightmare."

"You obviously don't know my nightmares," I said.

She thrust her hand forward, and were all knocked back by some unseen force.

"I'm also a highly skilled sorceress," she informed us.

"Great," I muttered. "Magic."

Clarisse dove at Helen in a flying tackle, but as soon as she made contact, Helen disappeared in a shatter of light.

She reformed behind Clarisse, and swiftly kicked her down. Chris swung his fists, but she dodged at struck him hard under the arm, followed by a karate chop to the back of the neck. Percy kicked her in the stomach, but she again disappeared, and Percy's kick met open air.

"You guys can't beat me," she said when she reappeared.

I spun around, trying to punch her in the face, but she ducked under my swing and kicked me where I hate to be kicked.

"You can't even touch me."

Thalia tried a roundhouse kick, but Helen dodged and tried to elbow Thalia in the ribs. Thalia grabbed the elbow before it hit her and threw Helen to the ground. Before Thalia could attack, Helen disappeared and reformed behind me.

"Mm…Son of Hades," she said tastefully, like I was her favorite dessert. "Maybe once I destroy the others you and I can…get to know each other."

I was about to tell her to go to Tartarus when Thalia kicked her in the side of the head.

"Back off sister I saw him first," Thalia warned. _Huh?_

"You're not exactly in a place where you can call dibs…huntress."

Thalia swung, but Helen wasn't there. Instead Thalia found herself punching a brick wall. Seriously a brick wall just pooped out of nowhere. Thalia cursed, and I stood up to go help Annabeth who was currently in a fight with Helen. Percy got there before I did, and tried to attack her from behind.

Somehow she saw it coming and she conked Percy and Annabeth's heads together…hard.

I tried to land and uppercut, but she side stepped my punch and waved her hand.

"Ύπνος," she ordered, and I fell asleep.

When I woke up, my hands were tied behind my back and I felt like someone had smacked me in the head with a sack of bricks.

"Oh good your awake," a familiar voice said.

I opened my eyes to see Helen staring at me. She'd changed out of her armor and into a black robe that came down to just above her knees like a skirt. All around me tropical trees and plants enclosed us. I willed a skeletal set of hands to emerge from the ground and untie my hands.

"Where are my friends?" I asked, stalling.

"Oh, they're fine, mostly," she said. "But what's it matter? You're with me now. I know you're attracted to me, I can see it in your eyes."

I admit she was pretty hot, but that didn't change the fact that we were enemies and she'd tried to kill my friends. For all I know, she already had.

"I can pull your dreams from your mind Nico, make them real," she told me. Suddenly in a hallucination I saw my dad, my mom, and Bianca all sitting down at the dinner table, telling me to hurry up and sit down with them. The hallucination ended, and I was back with Helen.

"I can give you whatever you want," she told me. "Whoever you want."

And the next thing I knew I wasn't looking at Helen, I was looking at Thalia. _What the Hades? _I do _not _dream about Thalia…well not usually.

"So what do you want Nico?" Helen asked, now having laid down on top of me. "What do you _really _want?"

The skeleton hands finished their job and I kicked Helen off of me. I shrugged off the ropes as I ran, home free.

"See ya!" I shouted back.

Suddenly I was frozen in place by an unseen grip. I was lifted in to the air and spun around to face Helen again. She walked up to me, swaying her hips the whole way.

"Ooo, running away," she said. "That's going to cost you a rib."

She made a pinching motion with her thumb and index finger, and next thing I knew one of my ribs snapped.

"Oh, I like my lovers to make a little noise," she said happily. "What else can I break?"

She pulled her left fist backward, and I went flying toward her. Before I could blink, she'd hit me in the face, punched me in the gut, elbowed my spine, and kicked me across the ground.

"Still playing hard to get?" she asked.

"It's not me, it's you," I joked, trying to hide my pain.

She pulled me into a standing position and kissed me hard on the lips.

I pulled away. "Sorry, I don't date evil."

"You don't have to be one their side Nico," she said seductively. "Join us. We're going to create a new world order. Remold the world in our image."

I spat. "Now where have I heard that before?"

"Kronos was only the beginning Nico," she told me. "We've got something much, _much _bigger planned. Something the gods will never see coming. Come on, join the darker side. You're a son of Hades. It's in your blood. Join The Pit. Stay with me."

I remained silent, thinking about what she had said. She was offering a chance to reshape the world, an excuse to succumb to my dark side, a sexy girlfriend. Who could say no?

"So, are you in…" and then she pinned me against a tree and kissed me, slowly sliding her hand downward. Her hand reached my belt. Her hand went a little lower. _Whoa! _"…or out?"

"You kidding?" I asked. "I'm–"

I heard a scream, instantly recognizing it was Thalia. I remembered my friends. Joining The Pit could mean a lot of cool things, but it would mean one thing that I could never stand: it would mean going up against my friends. I looked into Helens eyes. What I was about to do was wrong on so many levels, it was plain unethical. I was mildly disgusted with myself for what I did.

Instead of answering Helen, I pulled her into another kiss.

_**Nico you traitor! Or is he? Well I'm sure you guys will be thinking about THAT one all day. Thalico fans, please don't kill me for this chapter. Is Nico going to join The Pit? What was wrong when Thalia screamed? What's going on while their stuck on this island? Tune in next time to find out!**_


	13. Dark Side

"_**Everybody has a dark side. The brighter the picture, the darker the negative. There's truth in that saying. Look at the greatest men and women in history. Now imagine them using their talents and skills form evil purposes. They would have been very evil people, hated and feared. And all they would have had to do was succumb to that dark voice in the back of their head. I've heard that dark voice before. It scares me. But I would die before I let it control me."–Anonymous**_

_**Project Phoenix Agent 002: You always were a sucker for speeches like that.**_

Nico's POV

As the kiss continued, part of me wished it was real. Part of me wanted to join The Pit. But I couldn't. It would mean succumbing to that darker side of my self like so many children of Hades before me. But I wouldn't do it. Regardless of what dark secrets lay inside of me, I wouldn't let them win. So I did something else mid-kiss.

I cupped Helen's face in my hands and, after silently apologizing, twisted sharply. There was a sickening snap, and Helen fell limp. I didn't want to kill her, but there was no other way. Anything else would have taken too long and given her a chance to use magic.

As I stepped away from the body I apologized, out loud this time. "I'm sorry."

I turned and took off into trees, following the now growing sounds of screams and shouts. When I finally burst out of the tree line and back to the beach, I saw utter chaos.

Annabeth was surrounded by huge spiders, anywhere from four inches to two feet big. She was screaming her head off, cowering in a corner they'd backed her up into.

"Annabeth!" a guy shouted. It was Percy.

Percy was surrounded by three figures made of sand that vaguely had the shape of a human form. One punch from Percy and they would exploded back into loose sand, but they reformed just as quickly. Together the three sand beings kept Percy at bay, preventing him from getting to Annabeth.

Luke was on his knees staring at the image of a scythe that flickered in the bonfire in front of him. He kept mumbling, "No…no…" I heard a horrible dark laugh that seemed to come from the flames.

Clarisse was in the fetal position, rocking back and forth crying out in horror as tears rolled down her cheeks.

"No! Make him stop! Make him stop!"

Chris's eyes looked like they'd been replaced with black marbles, and he franticly flailed around. "Guys? Where are you? I can't see anything!"

A huge pillar of earth rose high into the sky. And dangling from the top of it was Thalia, who was screaming as she looked down at the ground below.

"Beautiful isn't it?" a voice asked.

I turned to look at…me? No it wasn't me. Whoever he was, he looked like me, but not _exactly _like me. His skin was much, much paler than mine. His hair looked harder somehow, sharper. He wore a black button up shirt with long sleeves, but the top buttons were undone and the collar was flipped out so it looked like one of those evil villain collars. His pants were ash grey and strapped to his thigh was a knife.

"Who are you?" I asked.

My opponent laughed. "Me? I'm the dark side you don't want to let out."

"What are you talking about?" I asked, although I was feeling a little scared now.

"Were you not paying attention at all Nico? You keep fighting the darkness inside of you. Why? Don't you know you would be so much better off embracing it?" my evil twin ranted. "Look around you Nico. These pathetic faces you see in front of you are the faces of goody goody heroes. Percy, Thalia, they get all the _real _respect. You're just a bit player they call on when they need extra help. There's only one way for a child of Hades to get respect. Take it."

"That's not true," I said, but the truth was I'd thought those _exact _thoughts before. What my evil twin was saying…I made sense in a twisted way. Thalia's scream filled my ears, bringing me back to Earth.

Somehow, my sword appeared in my hand. I smiled and leveled the sword at my evil doppelganger.

"I never was one for the spotlight anyway," I said.

Black fire blazed across my doppelganger's fingertips and his own sword appeared in his hand.

We clashed, and ebony sparks flew out in all directions. As the fight continued, I saw it was like fighting your reflection. No one could win, no one could lose. Our motions were perfectly in sync, and our swords continued to clash in a deadly rhythm. I couldn't beat him by fighting in my own style. I flashed to all the times Percy, Thalia, Annabeth, or Luke had beaten me in a fight. Percy usually pulled some water power move, which I couldn't do. Annabeth would always beat me using some elaborate plan. I was never good with plans, so that wouldn't work. As I thought, I tried to stall against my enemy.

"You're thinking of everything," I complimented, noting how my opponent flawlessly anticipated my moves.

"Nope," he said. "Just anything you'll ever think of."

He was right. I kept thinking of ways to beat him. How did Luke beat me? He was one of the best swordsmen ever to live, that's how. None of this was helping. How did Thalia beat me? Well when she fought with a spear or hunting knives she just attacked relentlessly until I broke. But when she fought with a sword…

I stopped attacking abruptly, breaking my evil twin's rhythm. He recovered soon enough and attacked. I waited until his swing was almost over and struck his blade aside, leaving his entire body totally exposed to attack. I slashed, cutting his cheek. That's it. I stepped back, waiting for him to attack again. He did. Again I batted away his attack and countered. A cut opened up on his shirt. He glared daggers at me.

Again he attacked, and again I batted away his strike and countered. The more cuts that appeared on his skin, the angrier he got, and the sloppier he got. Soon, he charged, wide open to my attack. I stabbed him in the gut, and he disappeared. The next thing I realized my sword was gone, and Thalia's grip weakened, now hanging by only one hand.

"Hang on!" I shouted and started climbing.

Just as I got to the top, Thalia dropped. I jumped after her and wrapped my arms around her as we fell.

"We're gonna die!" she shouted as we fell.

"Not today we're not!" I said.

We were plummeting straight for the shadow of a tree. If I timed this right…

We hit the shadow and I shadow traveled us to avoid going splat. We popped out of a different shadow and rolled across the sand.

"Help Percy, I got Chris!" I shouted.

Thalia snapped her fingers and clouds formed over Percy and his opponents. Rain poured out of the clouds, turning the sand men to piles of mud. I ran over to Chris and pulled the shadow out of his eyes by force. His eyes cleared, and the first thing he saw was Clarisse in the fetal position. While he ran to her side, Percy was busy turning the spiders around Annabeth into soup. As soon as Annabeth was safe, Percy waved his hand and a wave doused the bonfire in front of Luke.

Luke shook his head, returning to normal. We all looked at Chris and Clarisse.

"C'mon Clarisse," Chris begged, "Snap out of it."

"Don't hurt him!" Clarisse shouted. "Please, make him stop!"

She punched out, hitting Chris in the jaw. She snapped out of it instantly.

"Um…ow?" Chris said.

"Can we get out of here?" Luke asked.

"Not without a boat," Percy said.

So we all got to work making a boat that could hold us all. It took a few nights, and we had to sleep in tents. Percy and Annabeth had one tent, Clarisse, Chris, and Luke had another, and me and Thalia were in the third tent. Awkward…

One night, when I'd fallen asleep, another dream came.

_At first all I saw was a lone figure dressed in tattered red fatigues held together with weird straps. Whoever he was, he had long gray hair that covered his eyes. Over his mouth he was wearing some weird cross between a surgical mask and a muzzle. His skin was made of a patchwork of skin. I mean literally there were stitches that held the patches of his skin together. Some patches look brand new, other patches looked like they'd come from a corpse._

_His breathing was raspy and heavy. I realized he was standing over the bleeding form of Kronos, and right next to Kronos was Poseidon, weakly reaching for his trident. Off to the side, Percy was clutching his bleeding wound._

_"You're getting slow old man," a guy standing next to the zombie said._

_"I can still beat you…"Percy insisted, trying to stand._

_The guy back-handed Percy, and my friend fell to the ground._

_"Well that's three generations down, one to go," the guy said._

_"Looking for us?" a voice asked._

_Standing at the entrance were two kids, a boy and a girl. The boy was wearing a dark green jacket over a grey t-shirt with old blue jeans. He had blonde hair and grey eyes, but his eyes also had flecks of green in them._

_The girl had long black hair and dark blue eyes, beautiful ones at that. She wore a back t-shirt and faded blue skinny jeans. In her hands was a three foot long Stygian iron sword. She reminded me a lot of Thalia._

_"Ah, just the half-bloods I wanted to see," the guy who'd back-handed Percy said. "Urunos, finish them."_

_The zombie guy grunted and advanced. The boy drew a sword. It was celestial bronze, but the tip was made of a weird blue gem, and there was a similar stone embedded in the base of the blade._

_"You with me Miz?" the boy asked._

_The gem at the base of the blade glowed a little brighter, as if responding. The boy nodded._

_"Let's do this," The boy said._

_**It's you! I haven't seen you since…well you know.**_

_**Agent 002: So sorry about that, but uh…don't you have to say something to the readers right now?**_

_**Me: They can wait.**_

_**Reader: HEY!**_

_**Me: Oh alright. What will the gang find once they leave the island? Who were those people in Nico's dream? How much time do they have left to stop the mortals before Zeus and the gods do things THEIR way? Tune in next time to find out! **_


	14. Battle of the Sea

_**Well, that twist was fun, but they've got a war to fight, The Pit has a evil overlord to raise, and 002 and I have some…catching up to do. So yeah…. I guess we should get to the chapter now…This is awkward.**_

Nico's POV

The day had finally come to get off this island. As we were loading up, We realized we'd have to cut the edges off the boat if we didn't want to sink. Percy reached for Riptide, only to remember that it hadn't returned to him due to the magic interference on the island.

"I really wish I had my sword back," he grumbled.

A wave washed up, and as it receded it left behind…our weapons. Lined up in a row and sorted by owner.

"I'll be honest. I didn't think that would work," Percy said.

We all grabbed our assorted weaponry, but I was a little late. The last one to grab their stuff, I was the only one who saw the message write itself in the sand in ancient Greek: _This isn't over._

I shivered involuntarily. It couldn't be. Before I could tell the others, the next wave came up and washed away the sentence. It wasn't possible. Helen was alive. I suddenly didn't trust my sword and shield as much. I shook it off, knowing that distractions only got you killed in a fight.

And so, with our weapons returned and perfect weather for sailing, we took off.

Percy's POV 

As soon as the island was out of sight, I felt as if some weight had been lifted off my head. Experimentally, I tried to figure out our location. I knew exactly where we were. But not only that, I knew exactly _when _we were.

"Finally!" Luke said. "How long were we stuck there?"

"Too long," I said weakly. "Our deadline is a week away."

Everyone looked at me in shock. I was pretty shaken up too. _Keep it together. As long as the mortals don't try another attack you still have time to negotiate with the mortals. _But of course, things don't work that way in my life.

"We've got bigger problems," Annabeth pointed out. "Look."

We all looked out, and we could just see a huge navy fleet headed further out to sea. There were more ships than I could count, and they were moving as fast as mortally possible.

"Any chance that's just a cruise ship with a lot of extra security?" Nico asked.

Luke remained silent, focusing on the ships. "Nope. Headed right for Poseidon's realm. They're getting cocky."

"We've been gone a while," Thalia mused. "They must think we're dead."

Clarisse smiled evilly. "Let's go show 'em they're wrong."

We sped off in the direction of the fleet. We were making good speed thanks to my powers, and soon we'd caught up with the fleet. Luke's ears perked up.

"They've spotted us," he informed.

"Good," I said. "Chris, Annabeth, come with me. We might as well try and be diplomatic about this. Luke, which ship's in charge?"

Luke closed his eyes, filtering through all the messages the ships were sending each other. He finally opened his eyes. "_The Titan. _Also known as the big one in the middle."

The three of us jumped overboard and I created a geyser to send us high into the air. We landed in the middle of the ship's deck, surrounded by a small army of mortal soldiers.

The army marched forward, and I saw my friends tense up. It would be hard to fight an army that your weapons couldn't hurt. We raised our shields, and the mortals aimed their M16's.

"Stand down!" someone ordered, and the mortals lowered their weapons.

The captain walked through the crowd and looked at us. He was six-foot six with a large build and his uniform was covered with medals and what not. He gave us the look over.

"Michael Everette, Captain of _The_ _Titan_," he introduced, extending his hand.

I shook his hand with a little more force than necessary. "Percy Jackson, Son of Poseidon. You're in my turf."

The captain raised an eyebrow. "I seem to recall the sea being the territory of Poseidon."

"Yeah well, trust me. If you want to live to see tomorrow, you'll turn this fleet around now," I told him.

"Is that a threat young man?" he asked.

"No it's a fair warning," I said. "The Olympians are angry. They gave us a month to sort things out with the mortals, or they will kill _everyone_."

"All the more reason to destroy them," the captain said. "They throw around that kind of power like nothing. It's sick, it's wrong, it's–"

Chris grabbed the captain by the collar and heaved him forward.

"Listen idiot," Chris seethed. "_One _god could destroy this entire fleet with the wave of a hand. You godsdamned mortals are trying to take on _all twelve_. So if you don't turn this f***ing fleet around right now, I swear we will TURN IT AROUND FOR YOU!"

Done, Chris shoved the captain back. Everybody on the ship stood in shock with their mouths wide open. Chris huffed and walked off the edge of the boat.

"Aw crap," I cursed. "Well, you've been warned. Now if you'll excuse me I need to go fish my friend out of the ocean."

"_Again_," Annabeth added.

"This happens a lot?" a soldier asked.

"Periodically," I muttered.

Annabeth and I jumped off after Chris. After fishing him out, we swam back to our makeshift boat. We looked back to the fleet, which continued in the direction of my dad's palace.

"Maybe they need time to turn around," I said hopefully.

"I was pretty clear in telling them to turn around right now," Chris grumbled.

"Alright, let's sink these suckers and go home," Nico said. "I've got things to do and people to piss off."

I let my thoughts clear until I was completely focused on the water. A single ripple surged out from our boat, and the water went still as stone. The ships were dead in the water. I thrust my hand outward, and a monstrous wave surged outward, rocking the boats violently. I thrust my other hand out, and a two-hundred foot geyser shot out and struck one of the boats. It capsized and sank.

"You're having all the fun," Thalia complained and lifted her arms to the sky. She brought them down, and a surge of lightning struck another boat, sinking it.

Nico watched us destroy the ships, looking like he was thinking about something.

"C'mon Ghost Boy join in," Thalia said.

Nico extended his hand, and dark tendrils flew from his hand and wrapped itself around another ship. The tendrils pulsed, and the veins on Nico's arm bulged. The tendrils retracted back into Nico, and he clutched his wrist in pain. Abruptly, he thrusted his arm out and a bolt of black energy flew out. It struck a ship, and it exploded into little tiny pieces.

The rest of the ships were soon downed. Nico looked at his hands in mild disgust. Thalia looked at him in confusion.

"Nico…what was that?" she asked.

"Hand of death power I learned a while back," Nico explained. "Hate using it though. Drains other peoples' life force and funnels it into energy."

"Oh," Thalia said. "I can see why you wouldn't like using it."

"Can we focus on the problem at hand?" Clarisse asked.

"She's right," I said. "We need to get to the White House. If we can get the president to stop this, it should be enough to call of Zeus's rage. United States, here we come."

_**Owch: Yeah 003 is busy with…you know. So he asked me to fill in for him. Here goes…*assumes perfect impersonation of 003* Will Percy and the others make it to the White House in time? Will they be able to save the mortals? Is this the last of the mortal attacks? And how often do cows fight to the death in the middle of a Russian snow storm? *breaks impersonation* Bye!**_


	15. At the White House

_**Owch: Still haven't seen 003, so I'm in charge of these author whatever's for now. Luckily he left me the chapters to post so I don't have to write anything. Anyway read and leave strange comments that the boss man will read when he gets back. So yeah. Has anyone seen my 2x2 polyester flamethrower…?**_

We reached Washington DC a day later. Six days until Zeus took matters into his own hands. We couldn't screw up now. We were sitting on a hill that overlooked the White House. The place had more security than Alcatraz. Then there was the small problem that we weren't entirely sure that the President was in there. The sun was already starting to set.

"Bulletproof limo just showed up," Annabeth informed us.

"Alright, now what was the plan again?" I asked.

"We mist travel into the oval office, convince the president to call off the attacks against Olympus, and mist travel back out before anyone realizes we were there."

"Won't he just hit a panic button or something?" I asked.

"Thalia's got that covered," Annabeth reassured me. "She and Clarisse are going to isolate the office. It'll vanish right off the grid."

"Won't that just freak out security even more?" I asked, confused.

Annabeth smiled. "They'll be a little bit busy dealing with Nico, Luke, and Chris."

"I love your plans," I said smiling. "Especially when they don't get me killed."

Annabeth winked. "No promises."

I wrapped my arms around her and we evaporated into a cloud of mist. The next thing we were aware of, we materialized in front of the president himself. He gasped in his chair and his hand immediately went under his desk. There's that panic button.

"Mr. President," I greeted. "We need to talk."

"If you're here to kill m, then let me just say that will accomplish nothing," he said boldly, like he'd rehearsed it every night in the mirror.

I looked at Annabeth. She shrugged at took over. "We're not here to kill you; we're here to save you. Your campaign against the Olympian gods, it's too dangerous. You have to cal it off."

"The American people aren't safe with them in charge," the president insisted. "Since you and I both know they won't step down from power, then they will have to be evicted."

"There won't _be _an American people unless you call this off!" I blurted. "The gods are going to destroy humanity in six days unless you call this off right now."

"Then they'll soon see that we won't go down without a fight," the president assured rigidly.

I pointed at Annabeth. "Do you see this girl? Together, the _two of us _could topple this country. You might stand a chance against us. Now imagine if we brought in all the demigods. You wouldn't have a chance. Now imagine _one _god. More powerful than all demigods combined. And you think you and your pathetic armies can take on the twelve most powerful beings in existence? It's suicidal."

The president thought this over. It was like he was having an argument with himself. That when Annabeth realized something and whacked the president upside the head. He collapsed and sank to the floor.

"What did you do that for?" I cried.

"He was under the spell of Nemesis," she explained. "He was out for revenge and wouldn't stop until he got it."

I looked at the papers on his desk, and one stood out against the others. I lifted it up and skimmed through it.

"We've got bigger problems," I said. "Take a look at this."

Annabeth read through the paper, and her eyes widened. "Oh this isn't good. We have to round up the others!"

Nico's POV

"So what's the plan again?" I asked.

Luke started shaking a can of spray paint as he answered. "Cause as much havoc as demigodly possible to distract security."

Chris whipped out his cell phone and started dialing random numbers. "This should be fun."

I drew my sword and shield. Cause mayhem. I can do that. Luke looked over at Chris, who was still making calls.

"Easy man we don't want too many monsters showing up," he warned.

Chris just shrugged and dialed another number. "No such thing as overkill."

A monster roar sounded in the distance. That was our cue.

"Let's party!" I shouted, and we all ran for the White House. Luke started spraying the walls with pink spray paint while shouting "Paris Hilton for President!" Chris was smashing windows and firing his guns into the sky like some cowboy on crack. I started summoning skeleton so I could rip their skulls off and hurl them at windows. We probably looked like nut jobs. Well mostly Luke, because he'd taken his shirt off at this point.

"Stop where you are! All of you!" a secret service guy shouted. In response, Luke sprayed his face pink.

The secret service guy lunged at Luke, but at that moment Luke dropped his crazed college kid act and quickly knocked the agent into unconsciousness using the can of spray paint.

"Nice work," I congratulated as more secrets service agents showed up. Chris started shooting their feet and forcing them back. One of them pulled out a tazer and fired it at me. Electricity coursed through me and I went into a series of convulsions. However, I was up again two seconds later and punched the dude in the face. I owe my resistance to electricity all to Thalia and her constant zapping me.

Just as the secret service got the upper hand, something burst onto the scene. Wouldn't you know it? A hydra. Not a baby either, so it probably shot fire instead of acid. Oh joy.

One of the heads spewed fire, and everybody ducked or rolled. Just to shake things up a bit, I charged and cut all the heads off one by one. When all the heads disappeared and the beast collapsed, the secret service relaxed. Chris and Luke however, looked at me furiously.

"Are you nuts?" Chris shouted.

"You idiot!" Luke cried out.

Just like that, ten heads grew back from the five neck stumps. More fired spewed out, and we found ourselves running for our sorry little lives.

"Nice going man!" Chris shouted angrily.

The Hydra cornered us and got ready to start a barbecue. But then, one of the heads fell off and a lightning bolt struck the neck stump.

"Is that–" I began, but Chris interrupted me.

"Get down!" he screamed.

Just as we all hit the dirt, Clarisse jumped over our heads and got to work slicing the heads off the hydra. As soon as a head would fall off, a lightning bolt would strike the neck stump. Pretty soon the hydra fell over dead, for real this time. Thalia came into view.

"Always in time to save your ass," she said.

I couldn't let her have the last word, so I shot back. "It is and ass worth saving."

Thalia rolled her eyes. "Get over yourself Nico."

I still wasn't going to let her have the last word, so I countered. "I am over me. But you obviously aren't."

"Hey look it's Thalia," Thalia said.

"Where?" I asked reflexively before realizing my dumb mistake.

_**Owch: Technically, he did get the last word. What was on that paper Percy and Annabeth saw? Are Nico and Thalia ever going to kiss and get it over with? Who put the president under the spell of Nemesis? Tune in next time to get a free bottle of anti-diaper rash powder!**_


	16. He Lost

_**Hey guys I'm back! I just saved the world while running from the local authorities, so yeah my time away was uneventful. Owch didn't trash my stuff did he? Good. *sits down in chair* OWCH! That jerk left a tack on my seat! He is so dead.**_

Percy's POV

"Where do you think the others are?" Annabeth asked. No sooner had she said it when columns of fire erupted and screams were heard.

"I'm gonna guess over there," I said and ran off in the direction.

We ran, and came around the corner to see well…weird stuff. Luke was shirtless and beating up secret service agents with an empty can of spray paint. Nico and Thalia were talking about Nico's rear end, and Clarisse was heaving hydra heads into a pile.

"Guys!" I shouted.

Everybody froze, except Luke, who gave the last secret service agent an extra punch for good measure.

"Percy. Annabeth," Nico greeted. "What's up?"

"We need to move," I said urgently. "The mortals are headed for the Underworld."

Luke and Chris got to work and quickly "burrowed" us a few cars. Annabeth, Chris, Clarisse and I got in one car and Thalia, Nico, and Luke got the other. The drive to California was a long one, and by the time we were in Los Angeles we only had a day left before Zeus went into action.

"We turn here right?" I asked.

"Um, no we were supposed to turn back there," Annabeth said, pointing behind her.

"Well then why didn't you tell me?" I asked annoyed.

"I _did_, you just didn't listen," she countered.

"Look if you think I have a poor sense of direction you could just tell me instead of pretending you know where we're going," I shot back.

"I _do _know were we're going, I just can't do anything about it because a seaweed brain is driving."

"Do you want to drive?"

"Yes, actually I do."

"Well too bad cause I'm driving."

"You are so immature."

"And you're–"

"Hey, Romeo and Juliet," Clarisse interrupted. "We're here."

We looked out the window and saw the entrance into DOA recording studios was blown open and the elevator had been blasted open. The four of us got out and looked around for the others. Without warning, a car crashed through the side of a building and after flipping upside down, skidded to a halt. The doors opened and Nico, Thalia, and Luke got out.

Nico held his head, getting over his dizziness. "Next time, _I _drive."

Thalia smirked. "Yeah…I don't think so."

"Let's move people!" I shouted, and the seven of us ran into the Underworld. Slumped in the corner was Charon, looking defeated. How many mortals were there?

When we got to the Underworld, we saw large groups of mortals blasting their way through the ranks of the undead, headed for Hades' palace.

"Spread out and take them down," I ordered.

We fought for so long, and so many mortals fell. I rolled to the side as bullets showered my position. One bullet grazed my arm, and blood oozed from the wound. I ignored it. Any distractions would mean death. All around me, the mortals were fiercely attacking my friends.

Nico thrust his arms out and shards of rock erupted out of the ground, spearing mortals in the chest. Thalia was beating mortals back with her shield, because her spear wouldn't work and lightning doesn't strike underground. Annabeth and Clarisse were back to back, alternately blocking bullets with their shields and kicking mortals to the ground. Chris was sprinting back and forth across the battlefield, firing off his revolvers as he went. Luke continued his own fight, slicing the barrels off guns with his sword and then kicking them in the throat or something.

Suddenly, Nico roared in anger and every mortal and undead spirit fell asleep. Nico collapsed to the ground panting. Luke was at his side first.

"You okay man?" he asked.

Nico was sweating, and he had a cut bleeding out just above his eye. Slowly however, he stood up.

"Never tried that many before," he told us. "Need to…need…"

He fell, and Thalia caught him. Nico did his best to stay conscious, because he was trying to tell us something about time.

"Almost…time…Zeus's plan…" he mumbled.

Annabeth got it before we did. She looked at me. "Percy what time is it?"

I turned my shield back into a watch and checked the time. Oh gods. We only had a few hours until the gods destroyed all mortals. We had to move, had to stall for time. Hades was closest, we could stop him first. But the others up on Olympus were too far.

"Guys, go back to Olympus and stop the gods from going through with the plan," I told the others. "Luke, you and Nico stop Hades from helping destroy the mortals. I'll hold off the rest of the mortal army when they wake up.

"You take them all by yourself," Annabeth said.

"What choice do we have?" I asked deadpan.

"I promised never to abandon you again Percy," Annabeth said. "I'm staying with you. That's your other choice."

"They'll need you up on Olympus," I told her. "You have to go."

"A promise is a promise. I'm not leaving," she insisted.

"We'll handle things topside," Thalia promised. "But we have to go now."

"Then go," Annabeth told them. "We'll be okay here."

So Thalia, Clarisse, and Chris took off for the exit while Luke lugged Nico as he headed for Hades' palace. That left Annabeth and me to deal with the mortals once they woke up. We just sat there for a bit, waiting. Than Annabeth broke the silence.

"Percy there's something I have to tell you," she said.

"What is it?" I asked, worried.

"I'm– Watch out!" she shouted.

We dove away in opposite directions just as the bullet hit where we had been. I spun around to face a groggy mortal, the first to wake up. He aimed his pistol at me and fired. I dodged as best as I could, but for being half asleep that guy's a crack shot. I felt something pierce my skin just above my right hip, and pain shot up my side.

"Percy!" Annabeth cried.

But everything seemed to be happening in slow motion. I could feel blood spilling from my gunshot wound. My heartbeat filled my ears. Helplessly, I watched the mortal raise his gun again and pointed it at my head.

"NO!" Annabeth screamed.

She lunged for the guy just as the shot was fired. Her body flew backward and landed in a crumpled heap next to me. Her shirt began to turn red as blood exited the wound. It had hit he chest. Her heart even. Dead in under a minute.

"ANNABETH!" I cried in anguish. The man aimed his gun at my head again, and my muscles were too frozen in shock and rage to do anything about it. Around me, mortal began to wake up. I had lost.

_**I told you guys would hate me. Annabeth is dead. Yes you heard me. Annabeth is D-E-A-D. And I know right now every single Annabeth fan is thinking of the most painful way to kill me, and the basic PJO fans just plain want me dead. Oh well. This is why I had those clone made. Is Percy the next to fall? Can Luke and Nico stop Hades? How are things topside? Tune in next time to find out.**_


	17. Hades' Regrets

_**If you guys thought I was evil last chapter, wait until you see what I have in store this time around. And as for what Annabeth was going to tell Percy, I won't reveal that until the sequel of this story. Feel free to guess though; it's cool to see what you guys guess. Anyway, LAPTOP! KEYBOARD! ACTION! **_

I saw the man's finger slowly squeeze the trigger. I moved; hatred and rage taking over. I grabbed the hand that held the gun and squeezed, breaking his hand. I twisted sharply, breaking his wrist. And finally, I punched his elbow, forcing it to bend ninety degrees backward. He screamed in pain and fell to the floor. I kicked him in the ribs and told him I'd be back in a second.

As the other mortals advanced, all I saw was fresh targets. I swung one arm out, and the River Styx surged forward, dissolving any mortal in its path. I swung my other arm, and again the river obeyed, taking out dozens more targets. I stomped my foot hard, and an earthquake shook the Underworld. Stalactites and rocks rained down, crushing the mortals.

And as the dust settled, one mortal was left alive. The one who'd killed Annabeth. I dragged him by his collar toward the River Styx.

"Focus on what keeps you grounded to the world, or this could get very…" and with that, I shoved his face into the river. "…ugly."

He flailed and struggled for a bit, then his body went slack, and I released my grip. The body drifted off as it dissolved, and I left for Hades' palace, leaving a trail of blood drips from my bullet wound.

When I got to the palace, I saw Luke and Nico arguing with Hades.

"You had your chance Nico," Hades said. "But the time has come. The mortals have overstayed their welcome."

"I won't let you do this!" Nico cried out.

"Just try and stop me!" Hades roared in response.

Hades turned his back to Nico, and Nico looked back and forth from his sword to his father. Deciding, Nico charged his father. The blades locked, and the two stared each other down.

"Treason," Hades accused.

"Genocide," Nico seethed.

The ebony blades of Stygian iron clashed, sending black sparks in all directions. Nico swiped at Hades' head, but Hades blocked at followed up by giving Nico a cut on the cheek and then hilt-slamming him across the room. Luke charged, but Hades elbowed him in the stomach and grabbed him by his throat.

Luke was hurled across the room and smacked into a wall, slumping to the floor next to Nico. Hades walked up slashed across their bodies. A cut sliced against Luke's old scar, forming an X. A cut opened on Nico's chest. Hades grabbed Luke by the leg and hurled him across the room again. Hades raised his sword to stab Nico, but I sprinted and blocked.

"Jackson," Hades greeted angrily.

"You picked the wrong day for a rematch Hades," I warned. "I've had a bad night."

Hades disappeared in a puff of black smoke, and five skeletons grew out of the ground. Hades reappeared, smiling evilly.

"Percy don't!" Nico shouted when he saw the skeletons.

I slashed and hack, reducing the skeletons to piles of bone. Hades only laughed menacingly.

"Going to fight me yourself coward?" I challenged.

"Why would I do that?" Hades asked.

A hand shot up out of the ground. It was dead and decayed, but it slowly healed and reformed into a pale human hand. It pulled itself out, followed by the rest of the body. That's when I realized that the figure climbing out of the earth looked a lot like my mom. Other figures climbed out. Paul, Beckondorf, Silena. People I'd loved and failed to save. The last figure came out, and I almost barfed.

Standing in front of me was a twisted version of Annabeth. Her skin was a lot paler and slightly wrinkled. Her clothes were tattered, and her eyes looked like they'd been replaced with white marbles. All the same, I knew it was Annabeth. The five figures slowly walked toward me, arms outstretched. I gripped Riptide tighter.

"It's not them…it's not them…" I kept telling myself.

"Oh, believe me," Hades said. "It's them."

My mom pounced like a cat, and I batted her aside with the flat of my sword. She landed on the ground in a feral position, but she stood up and advanced with the others.

"Their minds have just been altered so they will kill you," Hades added.

Paul surged forward, and my instincts took over. I cut him down in one swipe, and dispatched Silena in a similar fashion. Beckondorf grabbed Riptide, trying to pry it from my hands. I punched him in the face and struck him down. My mom attacked, and I reactively stabbed her in the gut. With the four down, my eyes fell on Annabeth. She stood there motionless, waiting for me to attack. I lunged, and everything went south.

She ripped Riptide out of my hands and sent it skittering across the floor. I was about to punch her when it happened. Her wrinkles faded and the color returned to her skin. Her eyes again became stormy gray, they way they should be.

"Percy?" she asked in confusion.

I froze. "Annabeth?"

Without warning, the color drained and the wrinkles returned. Her eyes turned white again, and Annabeth attacked. I punched her to the ground, and she switched back to normal Annabeth. Again I froze, unable to fight her.

"Don't let him do this Percy!" she shouted helplessly. "You can't let him manipulate you like this! You have to fight me."

"I can't," I managed.

"That's what I was counting on," Hades said smugly.

I lunged for him, but Annabeth reverted back to her almost alive form and tackled me mid-air. I threw her off of me, but she leapt back and mule kicked me in the side. I hit the ground and she jumped on top of me. I managed to kick her off and grab Riptide. Annabeth jumped at me again, but I pinned her to the floor with Riptide at her throat. Once again, she reverted to the real Annabeth.

"Do it Percy. You have to," she pleaded.

I couldn't do it. I just couldn't.

"Let me make you a deal," Hades offered.

"No!" Annabeth shouted.

I caved. "What kin of deal?"

"Simple. Kill Annabeth Jackson, the woman who gave her life to save you, and I will give up helping Zeus annihilate the mortals. Or, stay out of this, and I will let you _and _your wife leave the Underworld alive."

I dropped Riptide in shock. I could forget the mortals and get Annabeth back. Or I could kill Annabeth and _maybe _save billions of people.

"Don't do it. Don't sacrifice those people for me Percy," Annabeth begged.

Tears came from my eyes as I realized what I would have to do. I grabbed Riptide with my right hand.

"I love you," Annabeth said.

"I love you too."

And then I stabbed with Riptide. Annabeth disappeared with a final cry of pain. I slowly stood as Hades applauded me.

"Well, I didn't think you'd actually do it," he said smugly.

I grabbed him by the collar.

"I swear on the River Styx Hades. You will regret this for the rest of you eternal existence. I don't care what your excuse is for this. You _will _pay."

"Dad…why?" Nico asked in horror.

"I…" the god began.

"Was it worth it?" Nico asked his father as we left.

I just barely heard the god mutter sadly. "No."

And with that we left the Underworld. On the way out Nico fell in step with me.

"Percy…I'm so sorry," he tried. "I tried to warn you, those were personal demon skeletons. Once you kill them in skeletal form, they transform into whatever haunts you the most."

"Not being able to save those I care about," I murmured. That did haunt me day and night.

We continued walking until we got to the water's edge at the beach.

"Percy, where are you going?" Luke asked.

"I've got you more god to convince before we go to Olympus," I told him, and then I dived into the sea.

_**Alright, I don't know about you but I got teary eyed this chapter. So anyway. Will Percy be able to convince Poseidon not to attack? How are things on Olympus? What's The Pit up to right now? Tune in next time to find out!**_


	18. Olympic Chaos

_**Well here's the next chapter. I in a way stole part of this chapter from TLT movie. By the way that movie is good it's just different from the book. You have to look at it as a stand alone story, otherwise you just get mad that they trashed the plot. Anyway I'm off track. Good news is, Owch is stuck in the year 1876, so we're all safe now. Bad news, I'm running low on clones again. I'd make more but they're starting to come out weird…Here's the chapter.**_

Olympus POV

As the mortals marched toward the Underworld, Hades excused himself and returned to his own domain. The other gods watched in awe as the seven young demigods fought off the hordes of mortals. But as they fought, the time to finish off the mortals grew nearer and nearer. As interesting as the fight was, the gods began to resume their arguments about destroying humanity.

When Nico put the entire mortal and undead army to sleep, all interest was lost in the fight and the arguing exploded.

"This is insanity! It's mass murder!"

"Three-thousand years we've put up with their arrogance, but this is too much!"

"They're not even thinking straight, they've been manipulated."

"SILENCE!" Zeus shouted.

The gods shut up and took their seats, still grumbling to themselves. All eyes fell on Percy and Annabeth as they waited for the mortals.

_"Percy there's something I have to tell you."_

"Oh no…"Athena groaned.

Aphrodite let out off a soft _eep_, but was silenced by a glare from Athena.

_"I'm– Watch out!"_

Everybody tensed as the shots were fired. A bullet struck Percy, and Poseidon stiffened.

"Percy!" Poseidon and Annabeth shouted at the same time.

Athena watched helplessly as her daughter jumped in front of the bullet aimed for Percy. Her mouth fell open as Annabeth collapsed on the ground, dead.

"No…" the goddess whispered.

Athena buried her face in her hands and cried. That's right, the goddess of wisdom cried her eyes out at the loss of her daughter. Poseidon felt guiltier than ever. His decision had put not his son, but Annabeth to death. Not only was Annabeth dead, but now Percy was heartbroken, and so was Athena. _What have I done?_

Zeus swallowed and cleared his throat. "Time is up. Poseidon, prepare your armies for battle. We destroy the mortals in two minutes."

After one last mournful look in Athena's direction, Poseidon left. A second later, they showed up.

"WAIT!" a girl shouted, and three figures burst into the throne room. Thalia, Clarisse, and Chris.

Percy's POV

I swam as fast as possible to Poseidon's realm. What I found was the army of Poseidon gearing up for battle, with Poseidon himself also preparing. He must have sensed me, because he froze and turned around.

"Percy…I'm so sorry about–"

"Save it," I spat. "So you're really going to help Zeus destroy humanity? Just like that. Bad enough _your _decision sends Annabeth to her death, now your going to destroy everything she fought so hard for. Everything that I'm fighting for."

"It's not that simple."

"Why not?" I shouted. "You were given to choices: forgive or destroy. And you chose destroy. And then you get mad at me! You force my own brother into a fight against me! When I save the Olympians, I'm the greatest hero ever. But when I try to protect billions of innocents, I'm suddenly a traitor and a disgrace. I see how you work."

"No. That's not how I work. Not anymore," Poseidon told me.

He turned to his army. "My brethren, we have been called upon to slaughter the innocent. I cannot speak for all of you, but I for one will not kill the defenseless. When the other gods enter this extermination, we will not aid them. We will remain neutral."

The army cheered, happy to have innocent blood off their hands. Poseidon turned to me and smiled sadly.

"Thank you Percy. You have shown me destruction only causes more destruction. I am truly honored to call you my son."

"Thank you…Dad."

For the first time in a long time, my dad and I hugged. When we pulled apart, I cleared my throat.

"Listen…we need to get to the other side of the country fast, and since I can't fly and I doubt mist travel can get me to Olympus…"

"Hang on," my dad told me.

Water swirled around me, and suddenly I found myself in the lobby of the Empire State Building with Nico and Luke. I walked up to the security guard and heaved him across the room. While he stood up, I pulled a keycard from his desk. He tried to stop me, but my glare froze him in his tracks.

When the doors finally dinged open at the six hundredth floor, I saw chaos. The bridge between Olympus and America was breaking up, and chunks were falling off and cracks were forming. Across the other side, I could see the gods fighting against each other. Something crashed into the ground, and I saw it was Clarisse. She slowly stood up, only to be punched back down by her own father.

"Pathetic," he spat. "Even Jackson lasted longer than this."

Something struck under Ares' eye, and golden blood gushed out. Chris rolled onto the scene, guns blazing. Some bullets penetrated Ares' skin, but a lot just bounced off. In one swipe of the sword, Chris was on the ground bleeding from the leg. Clarisse drew her own sword, and shakily came to stand.

"Let's move!" I shouted.

The three of us ran across the bridge, trying to make it. Luke tripped on a crack, and Nico and I kept running. We hopped across the widening gap and landed safely in Olympus. Luke on the other hand was still running. The gap widened. Ten feet. Eleven.

"Jump!" I screamed.

Luke ran and leaped, trying to make it across the gap between Olympus and the rest of the world. My eyes widened in fear when I realized he wouldn't make it. I watched helplessly as Luke fell to his death, six thousand feet below.

"C'mon Percy we gotta move!" Nico shouted, charging into the fray. He soon joined up with Thalia against Hera. Ares raised his sword to finish Clarisse, but I blocked in time.

"You," Ares growled.

"Up for a rematch?" I challenged. "It's been a while since I whipped your over glorified butt."

Ares snarled and charged. I let my whole body relax and suddenly I moved without thinking. I side-stepped and stabbed Ares in the back, following up by kicking him toward the edge of the crumbled bridge. Ares wiped the blood off and swung, but I wasn't there. Ares' sword ended up cutting through a cloud of mist.

I reformed behind Ares and judo threw him over the edge. He'd be back. But not before this was over. Zeus batted aside Nico and raised the master bolt, preparing to fire at the unsuspecting mortals far below.

Thalia notched her last arrow, aiming for Zeus's hand which held the master bolt. Her hair was matted with sweat and had fallen in her face. I wasn't sure what her aim would be like. Her breathing slowed, and she let the arrow fly.

The arrow struck the master bolt, and it clattered out of Zeus's hand. Out of arrows and missing both her hunting knives, Thalia drew her shield and spear instead. A smile flickered on her face, like it felt good to use her old weaponry again. In fact, she hardly looked like a huntress at the moment.

Zeus batted her aside and tried to blast her with lightning, but the bolt was batted aside by a black sword.

"Stay out of this son of Hades!" Zeus shouted. Zeus blasted again, this time at Nico. Nico flew backward and his body went into a fit of uncontrollable spasms. Chris and Clarisse were backing up the anti-extermination gods against the pro-extermination gods.

Zeus picked up his master bolt again, and got ready to destroy humanity. Not while I was still breathing.

"ZEUS!" I shouted.

He turned to face me, his eyes crackling with energy.

"New deal," I told him. "You and me, one on one. If I win you swear to never attack the mortals like this again, and if you win you destroy me and the mortals. But my friends live. This wasn't their idea, I just dragged them into it."

"Or I could blast you now and carry on with my plan," Zeus mused.

"And turn away from a blatant challenge to your godly authority? I don't think you would."

Zeus smiled and the master bolt extended to the length of a sword. It crackled and sparked with almost blinding blue energy. Zeus was the king of the gods. I was a worn out, heartbroken, out-of-his-league son of Poseidon. What chance did I have? Didn't matter, because I had nothing to lose anymore.

"Shall we…begin?" Zeus asked.

_**So now Percy faces the ultimate challenge! A fight with Zeus, and he's in the worst shape of his life! Oh I'm good coming up with these kinds of things. And this isn't even the only fight Percy's got to fight to save the world. Will Percy be able to defeat Zeus? Will The Pit take matter into their own hands? Will the anti-extermination gods be able to hold out? Tune in next time to find out!**_


	19. Meet the Pit

_**Beat the god, save the world. If you were in Percy's shoes, would you be able to do it? I know I wouldn't. By the way, I need your guys' help. I need ideas for five new members of The Pit. Leave the character idea in a review with their name, godly parent, etc. Anyway you will be mentioned in the end of the story award AN if your character gets picked. But hurry tomorrow the chapter will feature the winning characters, so hurry! Hurry! And cue chapter!**_

A single lightning bolt shot down and slowly carved a scorched path around us. When the bolt finished I realized it had carved a circle in the ground around Zeus and I. I experimentally tried to step out of the ring and found a magical border keeping me in. No going back.

Zeus swung at the same time I did, and Riptide clashed against the master bolt and sparks flew in every direction. I forced Zeus back, sending crackles of lightning outward with each clash of our weapons. Zeus swung so hard Riptide was knocked out of my hands. His next three strikes hit me in the shoulder, ribs, and leg. He finished by blasting me in the chest with lightning. I flew backward into the edge of the ring.

When I managed to stand, Riptide was back in my pocket again. I took it out and uncapped it, ready to fight. Zeus merely blasted again, sending me to my knees. I stood up again, and was once again blasted, this time landing on my back. A column of lightning came down on my chest, searing and scorching and in general causing pain. I screamed out until the lightning stopped. Almost out of energy, I stood again, raising Riptide.

I swung weakly at Zeus, and he merely parried my strike and kicked me back to the ground. I struggled to get up, but collapsed.

"I guess I win," Zeus said.

The magic borders of the ring shut down and Zeus started to walk away. He walked by a fountain. In a last effort, I stretched out my arm. The water surged forward and engulfed Zeus. As soon as it covered him, I froze it solid. Underneath the ice I saw Zeus's eyes crackle angrily. I strode over to him and hacked once at the ice. It only left a scratch. I hacked again, getting a little further. One last time I hacked, this time shattering the ice and turning Zeus into ice shards. He reformed himself, but he was shivering and weak. I angled my sword at his throat.

"No," I told him shakily. "I win."

A helicopter rose up above us, and in it were two mortal pilots. As the water formed a puddle around Zeus, I willed it into the air and onto the rotors of the helicopter. Again it froze, and the helicopter fell back to the ground from where it came from.

Another ship came up. A huge gunship. It landed before I could take it down, and five people got out. One of them I recognized as Helen, daughter of Morpheus. Another was a guy so buff he looked like he'd had a double shot of steroids since birth. He didn't wear a shirt, only a pair of torn up jeans. A third was lithe and in a crouched position, two knives drawn and ready. The fourth one's right arm had been replaced with a cybernetic replacement made of Celestial bronze, and the rest of him was pretty ugly too.

The fifth one was clad in Grey battle armor, and his helmet hid his face. He slid the helmet off, revealing his face.

"Ethan," I spat.

"Percy," he greeted. "Congratulations, you saved the world again. Pity we're going to have to kill you now. Percy, meet The Pit."

Ethan introduced me to his friends. He motioned toward the one with knives. "This is Benjamin, son of Dionysus, nasty little guy."

He directed my attention to the buff one. "Meet Shrimp, son of Hecate. Don't make fun of the name."

"You already know the lovely and talented Helen, so that's every…oh! Almost forgot. Percy, Ugly over there is my right hand man Brock, son of Hephaestus. Lab accident. The poor guy lost his arm and his hearing.'

"This is the best you could do?" I asked weakly. "You don't stand a chance…"

Ethan shrugged. "Ordinarily you'd be right. But Percy have you seen yourself lately?"

"And I _still _look better than you," I quipped.

"Laugh it up Perce," Ethan grumbled. He looked to his friends. "Kill him."

The four of them advanced at blinding speed. I weakly dodged Benjamin, but Shrimp ran smack into me and I flew through the air and crashed into the side of a statue of…me?

I looked up at the huge statue of me. I was holding Riptide in one hand and my shield was on my other arm. Underneath the statue was a plaque that read:

_Percy Jackson_

_Son of Poseidon_

_Savior of Olympus_

_Seaweed Brain_

I knew Annabeth had designed that one. At the thought of her name, I lost strength and focus. I was completely blindsided by Brock, whose hand transformed into a hammer and smacked me across the floor again. I tried to stand, but Helen blasted me with a burst of flame. I sank helplessly to the floor. Shrimp strode over and hurled me into the side of the gunship. Ethan pulled some red dust out of a pouch and blew it into my face. I started coughing uncontrollably until I coughed and blood spattered out.

"Aw c'mon Percy. Giving up so soon? That's not like you…"

He dragged me into the AC-130 gunship they'd come in, and the rest of The Pit piled in. They dumped me on the floor and left me to myself. I laid there awake in agony until exhaustion, blood loss, oxygen deprivation, and neural over-stimulation put me to sleep.

Nico's POV

We showed up just in time to watch them take off. Thalia screamed in anger. I silently cursed myself for not getting here sooner. Chris and Clarisse showed up seconds later.

"What happened?" Chris asked.

"They got away," I grumbled.

"They got Percy," Thalia said glumly.

We all fell silent. Percy had been the one constant through everything, always been that guiding force that pushed us to victory. And now, just like Annabeth and Luke, he was gone.

"So that's it?" Clarisse asked. "One little screw up and you guys are just going to give up on him? That's disgusting. Would Percy give up on any of you? No, he wouldn't. Percy's saved us all more times than I'd like to count, and gods damn it we owe it to him to at least try. So I'm not gonna just sit around here moping while they get away. You guys can come if you want."

I was the first to speak. "I thought you hated Percy."

"When a guy saves the world, you have to give him _some _respect," Clarisse admitted. "But if any of you tell him I said that, I'll deny it and dump you in the middle of Antarctica."

"Okay guys. This quest isn't over until everybody alive makes it back home," I said. "Who's up for a rescue mission?"

We all cheered.

"Wait, wait, wait," Thalia interrupted. "How are we supposed to follow them?"

Two pegasai landed in front of us. I them as Blackjack and Porkpie. They neighed a greeting which none of us could understand.

"Hey Blackjack," I greeted. "Mind giving us a ride. We gotta save Percy."

Blackjack neighed and I took that as a yes. Clarisse and Chris got on Porkpie and Thalia and I were on Blackjack. Thalia sat behind me, and as soon as we took off Thalia wrapped her arms around me so tightly I thought my lungs were going to pop.

We flew off after the AC-130, which had faded to a black dot in the sky.

"Hang on Percy," I mumbled.

_**Percy won! And then he lost. Will the gang be able to save Percy? Does Percy even need saving? Are Nico and Thalia EVER just going to admit what they feel? Tune in next time to find out!**_


	20. The Heroes VS The Pit

_**Hey I guys I want to thank everyone for coming up with the character ideas you guys saved me from major brain ache. white water1, you owe me 999,999 more clones! Do you have any idea how expensive these handsome devils are? That's beside the point I've since "borrowed" my arch-nemesis's zombie army to protect me. **_

We flew at powerful speeds toward the AC-130. Thalia loosened her grip on my waist just a little and drew her Mace canister. She expanded it into her spear and readied it. Her other arm was still wrapped around me though, so I still had trouble breathing.

"Clarisse, distract them, we're going in!" I shouted.

"We are?" Thalia asked.

"Hang on!" I shouted and steered Blackjack toward the front of the plane. Thalia threw her spear like a javelin and it pierced the window in front of the two pilots. One of the pilots slumped in their seats.

"Please tell me that was the co-pilot," I begged.

"We'll find out in a sec huh?" Thalia grinned evilly.

I jumped off of Blackjack, pulling a cursing Thalia with me. We crashed through the window and Thalia picked up her spear. I pinned the surviving pilot against the wall with my sword.

"If you want to live you'll keep this thing in the air," I told him. He nodded.

Thalia and I exited the pilot house only to find five people with weapons drawn on us. Thalia tapped her bracelet and it turned into Aegis. The five people took an involuntary step back.

One of them was seven feet even and strapped across his armor were various knives and axes. The right side of his face was burned and scratched beyond recognition and his knee bone stuck out a little. You could tell he had seen action. His main axe was four-and-a-half feet long and glowing red.

Another one was dressed in dark jeans, a grey undershirt, and a black leather jacket. He had a four foot long sword made of Celestial bronze. His hair was jet black and fell in front of his face.

The third one was tall and skinny with curly brown hair that looked like she'd just got out of bed. Her eyes were hazel and narrowed at me in disgust. In her hands was a spear that had a point at either end.

There was one girl with a Celestial bronze scimitar, turquoise eyes, and pale skin. She was wearing thin armor that hugged her body's every curve, almost as if it was skin tight.

"Well, I thought I heard something," a girl said. She had icy blonde hair and her blue eyes were so pale they almost looked white. Her breath vapor was noticeable even though it wasn't remotely cold around here. She pulled out two knives, which looked like they were made of frosted ice.

"Well gang, we have visitors," the girl said. "Neve, daughter of Chione. Get off my plane."

"Not without our friend," I insisted.

"Jakrelaur, show these two to the _ground_," Neve said with ice in her voice.

The scary buff one armed to the teeth came up to us. I felt sorry for the poor guy. Thalia grabbed his axe and threw him into the wall.

"Adrian, get her!" he shouted.

The one in the jacket faded into the shadows and reappeared behind Thalia. He swung his sword, but I blocked it. While our swords were locked, he looked me over.

"A son of Hades," he muttered. "Your second rate shadow powers can't help you here Dead Boy."

"Huh, never heard that one before," I joked.

My clothes turned black and suddenly I was sucked into blackness. I tried to shadow travel out of there, but something was blocking me.

"My father is Erebus," a voice told me. "God of shadows and darkness. My power of shadows outranks yours."

"Wanna bet?" I asked into the void.

I shadow traveled out of his trap and returned to the battle.

As the fight ensued, Thalia and I were separated by the enemy. I ended up backed against a wall by the girl with the scimitar. She was good with that thing, and I ended up fighting for my life.

The girl with the double spear advanced. She smacked Emilia out of her way and tried to stab my arm with her spear. I dodged and sliced the spear in half. She merely grasped both halves and continued her assault. Emilia stood up shaking her head.

"What the hell Sophiee?" she shouted.

I kicked Sophiee out of my way just as Emilia showed up again.

Thalia was facing off against Neve and Jakrelaur. Neve swung with her knife and ended up scratching Jakrelaur by accident. The cut froze instantly and the ice spread up his arm.

"Argh!" he shouted.

Thalia blasted him with an electric bolt from her spear. He staggered backward, but he didn't go down. While Thalia was busy defending herself against Neve's ice knives, Jakrelaur smacked Thalia hard with his glowing axe.

Thalia flew backward and smacked into the wall. Her spear clattered to the floor and her shield turned back into bracelet form. Jakrelaur raised his axe to finish her, and I blew it.

I hilt-slammed Emilia in the face and kicked her into the wall. A swing of my sword sent Jakrelaur to the ground bleeding. I swung my arm around and dark tendrils shot out. They wrapped around Adrian and pulsed once. I swung my arm at Neve and fired off a blast of dark energy.

With the last one down I ran to Thalia and scooped her up in my arms. Her breathing was shallow and weak. I looked at her necklace.

"Please work both ways," I begged.

I grabbed the cobalt gem and willed her to come back to me. I started to feel weaker and void of life. Thalia's gem turned back to its old sky blue color. I swayed back and forth, about to lose consciousness. If I closed my eyes, I knew I'd never open them again. I tried my best to stay awake.

Thalia gasped and opened her eyes. I looked into her eyes, and she looked into mine. She glanced down at my arms which were wrapped around her.

"Nico…" she murmured. "I took an oath."

At first I didn't get why she said that, but then I thought about everything that had happened. We'd been acting a little more than friendly lately. But at that moment, I didn't care.

"Break it," I told her.

In response, she leaned in closer. Our lips were about an inch apart when we heard a crash from a different part of the plane.

"Oh gods Percy!" Thalia shouted.

We both got up. Thalia grabbed her spear and ran for the rear area of the plane with me right behind her. A door blocked our way, and when I tried to open it didn't budge.

"Locked," I cursed.

Thalia aimed her spear. "Since when has that stopped us?"

Percy's POV

I woke up on the floor surrounded by the five members of The Pit I'd fought earlier. Helen looked at me and laughed.

"Oh you're up. I suppose this is the part where you try to escape," she said. "Go ahead and try."

I took Riptide out of my pocket and uncapped it. I tried to stand and stumbled. I made my way toward Helen and weakly swung. It missed by a mile, and my own momentum sent me toppling back to the ground.

"How can you save the world Percy?" Helen asked. "You can't even save yourself."

I stood up and swung again. My grip on my sword was too loose, and it clattered out of my hands. Helen kicked me in the ribs and I fell back to the ground. In his seat, Shrimp scoffed.

"No wonder that Annabeth chick died," he huffed. "She was too busy saving this idiot to worry about herself."

"Seaweed Brain," Benjamin mocked.

I shot up like a rocket and drew Riptide out of my pocket as it returned to me. I sliced a gash into Helen's armor and kicked her into the wall. Her head whiplashed backward and she hit her head on the bulkhead. She was knocked out cold.

Benjamin pounced like a cat and I hilt-slammed him in the throat. By the time he hit the ground I'd turned Shrimp's chest into a criss-cross of cuts and scratches. I judo threw him into Brock. Ethan back-handed me to the floor.

"Using the attack from your friends to cover your escape?" Ethan asked. "How predictable can you get? And did you really think you could beat me in your state? Face it! I won! You LOST!"

Something stabbed through the side of the plane and cut out a circle. The circle was kicked in and two people leaped in. Clarisse mule kicked Shrimp into a wall and Chris fired off his handguns, scoring hits on both Helen and Benjamin.

The door exploded open and Nico and Thalia ran in. We backed up to the end of the plane and angled all our weapons at The Pit.

"Actually Ethan, I think _you_ lose," I smirked.

They all raised their hands in defeat, but Ethan didn't stop smiling. I tightened my grip on Riptide.

Ethan closed one of his hands into his fist and the rear end of the plane exploded. Thalia, Nico, Chris, and Clarisse fell out. I saw two pegasai dive after them. I fell, but grabbed a seat and didn't fly out like the others Ethan sliced open a nearby crate to reveal several parachutes. More members of The Pit ran in, grabbed a parachute, and jumped out. Ethan was the only one left and there were two parachutes left. He grabbed one, but I smacked it out of his hands and it fell out of the plane. Ethan drew his own sword.

This was stupid. We were in an airplane that wasn't working right. We were hurtling to our doom. I should've grabbed a parachute and gotten the Hades out of there. Instead, I leveled Riptide, pointing it at Ethan's throat.

"Let's do this," I challenged.

We charged each other and our swords clashed together. The plane shifted in the air and the open end pointed to the sky. Ethan and I both fell on our butts. I was the first up and I slashed his sword out of his hand.

I stabbed his leg. "That was for Luke."

I sliced across his face. "That was for me."

"And this…" I said, pulling back my sword, "…is for Annabeth."

I stabbed him in the gut and kicked him in the groin.

The plane shifted again, and the open end pointed to the ground. Ethan, the parachute, and I fell out. As Ethan plummeted to his hopeful death, I snatched the parachute mid-air and pulled the cord. I was already down to the last few hundred feet though, and the parachute didn't slow me down much.

I hit the street hard and after rolling painfully across the pavement, I blacked out.

_**Well The Pit is defeated for now, but we all know they'll be back. And if I didn't portray your character the way you expected then I'm sorry. Did Percy survive his fall? Are Nico and Thalia EVER going to kiss? Is Percy going to be able to cope with his loss? Tune in next time to find out!**_

_**Oh and thanks again to everyone who submitted a character idea.**_


	21. Aftermath

_**Alright, just this chapter and the epilogue. I had already written this chapter but it got deleted when the computer shut down. Now I'm sad. I hope I still got the emotion in this chapter. You know just for the heck of it while reading this play that sad walking away song from the Incredible Hulk it'll do wonders for the effect.**_

The entire time I was unconscious I was plagued by dreams. They were always about Annabeth. And she always died at the end of the dream. It was awful, and by the time I woke up I was feeling like crap got off better than I had.

Grover was there. He smiled sadly when he saw me.

"Hey Percy," he greeted.

"Grover…" but I lost my train of thought. "Where am I?"

"Back at camp in the infirmary," he told me. "You've been out cold for two days. How are you feeling?"

"I wish I was dead," I told him truthfully.

"Oh." He mumbled. "Look I know it's the last place you want to be but are you going to Annabeth's funeral? We already had Luke's but for her we figured we'd wait until you–"

"I'll go," I interrupted and got out of the bed I was in.

My gunshot wound was bandaged, and so was my chest, ribs, shoulder, and my various other injuries. I was sore all over and certain movements cause intense pain. I didn't even care. I powered through it until I made it back to my cabin. As soon I was there though, I closed my cabin's door, collapsed on my bed, and cried. I must've cried myself to sleep, because the next thing I remembered was a bleary-eyed Thalia waking me up telling me it was time to go to the funeral.

Nico's POV

The funeral was one of the saddest things I ever put myself through. All of camp was there, as well as Tyson, Athena, Poseidon, and Annabeth's mortal family who had been let through the borders to say goodbye.

Instead of rifle shots, the Apollo cabin fired flaming arrows into the sky. They disappeared into the night sky, and it started to rain. The rain did a good job of hiding everybody's tears. Percy fell to his knees and cried like there was no tomorrow. Thalia pulled me into a hug and sobbed into my shoulder.

I did my best to comfort her, returning the hug.

"She's gone," she sobbed.

"We'll see her again. Her and Luke both. One day," I reminded her.

"You think so?" Thalia asked, her face still buried in my shoulder.

I knew what she meant. Annabeth and Luke had died in defiance of the gods. That could hurt their chances for Elysium. But they were heroes no matter what. They'd make it for sure.

"I know so," I told her.

She looked up at me, then to my lips, and then back up at me. And then…she kissed me. I wrapped my arms around her and her arms wrapped around my neck as the kiss deepened. The small part of my brain that still worked yelled. _Your dream idiot! Don't do anything stupid! _But that voice was drowned out by the much larger part of my brain that wanted to never leave Thalia ever again.

Even so, I reluctantly pulled away. "Thalia…"

I stab of rejection was in Thalia's eyes as I pulled away. I really cared about her. Hades, I might even love her. So instead of being the voice of reason, I said something else.

"Not here."

She nodded, and since we were at the back of the crowd no one saw us shadow travel to my cabin. And we spent the night drowning our sorrow in each other's company.

Percy's POV

After the funeral, I left camp. I packed as much of my stuff as possible and walked off. I walked past the camp's borders, past New York City limits, past the New York state line. I didn't know where I was headed, or why I was headed there. I just kept walking and walking until I ended up sitting on a dock off the coast of California.

I was stuck without a purpose. Riptide felt heavier in my pocket. _Maybe I should just end it all._ I fell asleep on the dock that night.

_I was standing on the dock as a fierce thunderstorm shook the ground. Thick mist curled around my feet and raspy breathing filled my ears. I didn't have to turn around to know that the reaper himself was standing behind me._

_"What are you doing here?" I asked, not turning._

_"I am wherever death is," he answered._

_"I'm not dead."_

_"No, but thoughts have entered your mind Percy Jackson. To take your own life…you've truly lost all hope haven't you?"_

_"Get out of my head," I ordered._

_A scythe slowly edged forward until the blade was in my face._

_"Do you see this blade?" he rasped from behind me._

_"I see it," I answered._

_"This is the blade that can end your suffering," he told me. "All you have to do…is ask."_

I woke with a start. I opened my pack. I was out of food, out of clothes, out of everything. I was stranded in California with no food and no way home. I tried mist traveling. I started to evaporate, but my focus broke and I reformed. Sighing, I hefted my backpack and started walking back. It could take a while.

Channel 2 News

_Following the disappearance of demigod terrorist unit, elected official have passed the "Co-Existence Act" which will help to link our world with the world of Olympus._

_I'm some random reporter, and this is Channel 2 News._

The Burt Williams Show

_Following the attempt to enslave our leader, Congress has foolishly passed the so-called "Co-Existence Act" in a suicidal attempt to combine our two very different worlds. All human-only schools have either been shut down or forced to accept demigods._

_With living monster magnets once again attending schools, monster attacks against innocent youths are expected to triple. Part of the new act has boat men added to school faculties to protect pure humans and demigods alike, but I for one do not feel safe with them watching over our children._

Half-Blood TV (commercial)

_With new Satyr Securities offices opening across the country on a daily basis, monster effectiveness is expected to drop significantly. Providing protection for mortals and demigods alike, the world at large can rest at ease with Satyr Securities watching over us._

Access Olympus

_Demigod hero and savior of the world, Percy Jackson still missing after an extensive search. With rumors ranging from monster attacks to his joining The Pit, nobody truly knows what has happened to him. If you have any information regarding this man, contact us at 1-800-LOST-HERO_

_In other news, today marks the one week anniversary of the passing of Annabeth Jackson, wife of Percy Jackson. _

Neroh turned off the TV, not finding anything that wasn't about Jackson and his victory. He sighed. The Pit had failed to bring down the world once again.

"Anything on?" the little boy asked Neroh as he walked in.

"'Fraid not kiddo. Your daddy screwed up again," Neroh told him.

"When I get older, do you think I'll screw up like him?" the boy asked, hope gleaming in his eyes.

Neroh put an arm around the boy's shoulder. "No way kid. You'll bring Olympus crumbling down for sure."

"I'll be the bestest member of The Pit eber," the boy said happily.

Neroh laughed. "Forget that."

The boy looked shocked and upset. Neroh just smiled.

"You'll be _leader _of The Pit."

Neroh lifted up the file folder containing details on Operation: Grandfather. The kid had high hopes, but Neroh's expectations were even higher. One day, this small little boy would destroy Olympus. And now that Annabeth was dead, there would be no one around to stop young little Evan Nakamura.

_**WTF? That's exactly what you guys are thinking right now huh? Alright, tomorrow's the epilogue and then the day after that is the sequel. There's no real reason to put up the TV host questions this time. So just review.**_


	22. Epilogue

_**I've finished book two of the War of the Half-Bloods Trilogy. I actually did it. I want to thank all of you for following this story. At the end of this chapter will be the Story awards, now featuring more awards to the reviewers. See ya at the Story Awards!**_

Third Person POV

_The night of the funeral…_

Artemis looked at the Hades cabin in disgust. As much as she wanted to blast Nico to smithereens and expel Thalia in shame from the Hunters, The Fates had other plans. So as Artemis was about to open the door of the Hades cabin, another hand grabbed hers.

"Don't do it sis," Apollo warned.

"And why should I?" Artemis hissed. "After what that despicable son of Hades did–"

"Need I remind you of the new prophecy?" Apollo asked sternly.

Artemis fell silent. Her brother was right. If she killed Nico now, she could very well doom Olympus. So instead she merely huffed and stepped away from the door.

"You really expect me to let this go unanswered?" Artemis asked.

Apollo shrugged. "Eh, no. Just don't kill anyone important 'kay? I gotta go, it's almost sunrise."

And the god of the sun disappeared. Artemis waved her hand, and it was done. She left, even though she'd be back in a few hours. Sure enough, just as the sun rose, Artemis returned and wet to the Zeus cabin. She knocked and waited for Thalia to answer. Thalia opened the door groggily, rubbing her eyes.

"My lady?" Thalia asked.

"It's time to come back to the Hunters," Artemis told her.

Thalia nodded. "Right. I'll just get my stuff."

The two left before anyone else had even woken up. Back at the camp of the Hunters, Thalia went to set up her tent, but Artemis stopped her.

"So, Thalia," Artemis began. "I want to talk about your friends. Especially the son of Hades."

"Please don't kill him!" Thalia blurted out.

"I might be tempted to let him live," Artemis said. "_If _you weren't pregnant with his child."

"What?" Thalia cried.

"Thalia, I think you know what I have to do," Artemis said. "I hereby order you to step down from your position as a huntress."

Thalia nodded, and her immortality vanished. Her clothes transformed from the silver clothes of a huntress to her old clothes. Thalia looked at her shoes with renewed interest.

"Are you going to kill Nico?" Thalia asked.

Artemis remained silent. The truth was that Nico would have to live if the new Great prophecy was going to come true. But that was the _only _thing keeping him alive at the moment. But she wasn't about to tell Thalia that. Thalia took Artemis's silence to mean that she would in fact kill Nico.

"Lady Artemis–"

"You may return to Camp Half-Blood now," the goddess interrupted. "Goodbye Thalia."

Thalia clenched her fists, but turned and left the camp of the Hunters. As she walked back to camp, she could only hope Nico was still alive.

Nico's POV

I woke up the next morning, and Thalia was gone. She hadn't left when I was still awake, so I wondered where she'd gone. I got up for breakfast, but I didn't see Thalia at the Artemis or Zeus table. I felt a twinge of worry, but I immediately thought better. Thalia was a daughter of Zeus and one of the best fighters I've ever seen, she could handle herself. But something else was up. I looked around and saw that Percy wasn't anywhere either.

After breakfast I went to talk to Chiron. "Did Percy leave last night?"

Chiron looked surprised by the question. "No I don't think so. His car is still in the camp garage. Did you check his cabin?"

"No I didn't," I said. I started to walk for the Poseidon cabin when I remembered something else. "Um, Chiron...how about Thalia?"

Chiron again looked surprised. "I haven't seen her either."

I left. When I checked the Poseidon cabin, Percy wasn't there. Thalia wasn't anywhere either. I searched all day for them, but found nothing. As the sun set, I could only wonder where my friends had gone.

_**The epilogue is never as good as the rest of the story. What are you gonna do? Be back tomorrow for the new story! Until then–**_

_**002: WHY IS THE YEAR 1876 BEING TERRORISED BY OWCH?**_

_**Me: Oh crud. Gotta go, I'll see you guys in **__**Nico di Angelo and the Great Resurrection**__**! BYE!**_

_**Story Awards:**_

_**Reviewed Every Chapter (A lot of you came close but you missed a few. Sorry guys and girls)-eltigre221, Thread of the Maze.**_

_**Coolest Name: Aqua red Youtube Lamp of Chaos (All I have to say is "HUH?")**_

_**Highest Bounty Placed on my head: dracco122 (actually, a million dollars is pretty low compared to what 001 put on me, but hey he didn't review)**_

_**Chapter with least reviews: Repel the Enemy Part 1 (I can understand this actually. I'd just come back from hiding and not everyone knew I was back.)**_

_**Chapter with most reviews: News (is it just me or does the first chapter always get the most reviews)**_


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